Received a call today from a mother with whom I worked whose 2nd baby was
referred for poor weight gain. We tried all kinds of things and got him
growing, though slowly (4-5 oz/week was his usual rate of gain) using
feeding tube device and Haberman feeder. After several weeks of pumping to
increase her supply (never terribly successful), mother and I agreed that
she had done plenty and to quit whatever she wished to quit. She gradually
weaned baby to bottle, using whatever stored milk she had during the
interim.

Today I learned that in the last month, baby got sick and STOPPED GROWING.
He ended up being referred to a Children's Hospital here where the usual
and unusual malabsorption problems were ruled out (he had normal stools and
voids after we got him eating better) and now at 7 mo he weighs 17 lbs.
But his head is smaller than normal (below the chart) and appears to be
developmentally delayed, although not really defined for parents as yet.

MDs identified some abnormalities in blood tests and are currently
attempting to rule out Trisomy 8.  Can anyone tell me if they have worked
with a baby with this problem? What was the difficulty they observed with
feeding? growth? development? Mother uses me as a sounding-board now and
feels good about her breastfeeding efforts in contrast to all the messages
she got early about how she was trying to be supermom and thus was not
relaxing enough to make enough milk.  (She still harbors lots of anger
about those messages she got from so many other people.)

I would like to be able to support her, but know too little to do more than
listen at this point.  Seh says they told her it would take another two
weeks to verify if it is Trisomy 8 or not.

I'll wait for replies.  Many thanks.



         %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
         %% "We are all faced with a series of great  %%
         %% opportunities brilliantly disguised as    %%
         %% impossible situations" - definition of a  %%
         %% lactation consulting service.             %%
         %% Kathleen G. Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC          %%
         %% [log in to unmask]   Homewood, Illinois USA %%
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