Failure to Thrive Infant

[Nessa906]

My nephew is 6 months old and has been labelled failure to thrive.  He weighs less than 10lbs.  He has not been gaining weight but recently lost weight.  He drinks 35-30 oz of breastmilk a day, and has 10-12 watery stools each day/ So watery that the doctor thought his stool sample was urine.  He is not meeing the typical milestomes.  He is not able to keep his head up, sit, babble.  He can do fine motor, hold a toy, pass it form hand to hand. Doctor is stumped, but has still not refferred to a specialist.  They tried to test for CF, but baby would not sweat.
Any advise or suggestions would be appreciated.

[CalGal]

Nessa, has he been tried on any of the 'sensitive' formulas that can be used for some babies that have digestive issues? If not, that might be something to try. In addition, is there any history of something like celiac disease anywhere in the family? Or any type of GI issues?

This child needs to be thoroughly checked out. The parents should request an immediate referral - and try a change in feeding. Mother's milk can, unfortuantely, be something that some children can't digest. There's no blame anywhere, but if that's what's going on, it needs to be changed - soon.

[Nessa906]

Hi, Thank-you for your reply.  The doctor has changed the baby to formula, an allergy sensitive one.  Blood results came back with high white blood cel count indicating an allergy.  He now has blood in his stool and is vomintting.  Doctor said this is normal... for a baby switching to formula.  Good news is he gained 6 ozs!
No history of Cliac or GI issues that we know of.

[CalGal]

Have him tested for celiac anyway - at least have the blood test done. It's not the greatest test in the world, but it's worth doing. If you want a better test, go to enterolab.com and do the fecal antibody test and allele test. Docs don't like the fecal antibody test for some reason, but for those who have been difficult to diagnose this test has been a life-saver. It appears it doesn't miss what the blood test can.

If you do the blood test, make SURE the test has at least 5 parameters they're checking - NOT just the transglutaminase.