We need answers!!

[Heathmcmi]

Our daughter was diagnosed with failure to thrive a little over 3 months ago. She went from 50% to 0% in a 3-4 months. She went through periods of having an aversion to food, to eating and still not gaining. We have seen a gastrogist, hematologist, endro, and a cardiologist, behaviorist, and speech therapist. Her red blood cell counts are in "normal range" but are slowly dropping while her white blood cell counts are in "normal range" but are slowly increasing. She was recently admitted into the hospital where an ultrasound came back negative, MRI was negative, and however they found a moderate sized hole in her heart (ASD). Her cardiologist refuses to think this is causing her issue. The right side of her heart is also enlarged and when she was being admitted into the hospital her heart rate jumped up to 189.Two weeks ago she was 17lbs and 2oz; we had taken a two week break, because it was a mental strain and needed the break. (we go for weekly weight checks) Today she weighed in at 17lbs 4 oz. She is eating an average of 900-1100 calories a day in pediasure alone. She eats throughout the day as well. Her pattern is breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Her pediasure is offered at every meal and she happily drinks it. One thing that I would like to add, because it’s just sitting in the back of my brain and nagging me HORRIBLY! When our daughter was born she seemed “colicky.” She was ALWAYS irritable, uncontent, and basically liked nothing. She didn’t have colic or reflux, but this uncomfortable feeling kept her up. For the first four months of her life we all dealt with the constant demands of “Princess Reilly.” Our three year old was the most patient one out of all of us. (Go figure!) We started fearing the worst, she refused to make eye contact, smile, coo, roll over, there was nothing to her. She was able to lift her head and move it around. She was for better words…unsociable. When one day *POOF* she smiled, coo, rolled over, and made beautiful eye contact. It was as though someone answered our prayers. However, this is when she went from 50% to 0%. She wasn’t very active still at this point and was still eating as much as she was before her “light switch” went off.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
I am really sorry to hear about your daughter and can well imagine what you are going through. I am not sure why the cardiologist is ignoring the ASD. This is known to be associated with failure to thrive. Please consult another pediatric cardiologist as she may need a surgical closure. Please do not delay going to another pediatric cardiologist.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[donjoe341]

I am not a doctor and have never had this problem. I found this on a web site. You can look at it and make sure the doctors are checking for all of these possible causes.

Possible underlying causes for this include viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection, a digestive enzyme deficiency, a genetic disease (such as cystic fibrosis), or a milk protein intolerance.
When adequate calories are consumed and absorbed into the body, the calories could be spilling out in the urine, if the kidneys are not effective at holding in the protein. If the fuel remains safely in the body, the body could still be burning it at a faster-than-normal rate, leaving insufficient calories for growth. Possible causes of this hyper-metabolic state include hyperthyroidism, chronic infection, congenital heart disease, or malignancy.

I am also a mother who had a very difficult time with my baby. My son never had a problem with failure to thrive but it was a very difficult time.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I pray you get answers soon

Read more: http://www.drgreene.com/qa/possible-causes-failure-thrive#ixzz0usbLQmDP


Read more: http://www.drgreene.com/qa/possible-causes-failure-thrive#ixzz0usavibPU