help alleviate my irrational fears!!

M

Mommafirst

Guest
My daughter with CF is 9 months and exclusively breast fed.
 She is falling in weight percentages, like your son -- but is
(right now) pancreatic sufficient.  I certainly don't think
your situation can only be explained by CF, as my 3 year old son
(CF carrier) has been in the 10th percentile of weight since he was
around 7 or 8 months -- just fell off.    Since you
have a family history, I would encourage you to seek out further
testing.  They are not invasive and would go a LONG way in
either assuring you OR getting your son the help he'll need.
 Either way, best of luck!!!!
 
A

annonymous

New member
i don't want to minimize your fears, but i just wanted to offer a diifferent perspective based on my experience (and countless other mamas that i sought out when i thought i had reason to worry). what you are describing can be a perfectly normal growth pattern of a bf baby. it is common for bf babies to start off gaing quickly, but slow down somewhere around 4-6mo. also, some babies grow in spurts, rather than gaining steadily. my ds didn't gain an ounce from around 6mo to almost 9mo. he was stuck at 19 lbs for what felt like forever! his doc became concerned after looking at his percentiles dropping, but my instincts were saying he was fine. sure enough, he started gaining (quickly i might add) a lot of weight within the last 3wks. nearly 3 lbs! his percentiles shot back up too! so, my advice to you is this, look at the whole picture. not just those charts. while they can be very helpful, they are not always good predictors for everyone. ask yourself questions like these: is he mobile (i believe this was one of the big factors in our case-ds was crawling by 6mo)? is he developmentally on track? are his fingernails growing? is he cranky or appear to be in pain frequently? what do his stools look like? is he LOSING weight? if you are still bf'ing, i don't see anything abnormal about the frequncy he eats or the # of stools you described. BUT, if you feel that you need to look into it further, by all means do so. i totally believe in trusting your intuition. i understand especially because of your family history. i just wanted to encourage you and let you know that all may very well be just fine. good luck to you and i'll be praying that it's not cf.
 
A

annonymous

New member
i don't want to minimize your fears, but i just wanted to offer a diifferent perspective based on my experience (and countless other mamas that i sought out when i thought i had reason to worry). what you are describing can be a perfectly normal growth pattern of a bf baby. it is common for bf babies to start off gaing quickly, but slow down somewhere around 4-6mo. also, some babies grow in spurts, rather than gaining steadily. my ds didn't gain an ounce from around 6mo to almost 9mo. he was stuck at 19 lbs for what felt like forever! his doc became concerned after looking at his percentiles dropping, but my instincts were saying he was fine. sure enough, he started gaining (quickly i might add) a lot of weight within the last 3wks. nearly 3 lbs! his percentiles shot back up too! so, my advice to you is this, look at the whole picture. not just those charts. while they can be very helpful, they are not always good predictors for everyone. ask yourself questions like these: is he mobile (i believe this was one of the big factors in our case-ds was crawling by 6mo)? is he developmentally on track? are his fingernails growing? is he cranky or appear to be in pain frequently? what do his stools look like? is he LOSING weight? if you are still bf'ing, i don't see anything abnormal about the frequncy he eats or the # of stools you described. BUT, if you feel that you need to look into it further, by all means do so. i totally believe in trusting your intuition. i understand especially because of your family history. i just wanted to encourage you and let you know that all may very well be just fine. good luck to you and i'll be praying that it's not cf.
 
A

annonymous

New member
i don't want to minimize your fears, but i just wanted to offer a diifferent perspective based on my experience (and countless other mamas that i sought out when i thought i had reason to worry). what you are describing can be a perfectly normal growth pattern of a bf baby. it is common for bf babies to start off gaing quickly, but slow down somewhere around 4-6mo. also, some babies grow in spurts, rather than gaining steadily. my ds didn't gain an ounce from around 6mo to almost 9mo. he was stuck at 19 lbs for what felt like forever! his doc became concerned after looking at his percentiles dropping, but my instincts were saying he was fine. sure enough, he started gaining (quickly i might add) a lot of weight within the last 3wks. nearly 3 lbs! his percentiles shot back up too! so, my advice to you is this, look at the whole picture. not just those charts. while they can be very helpful, they are not always good predictors for everyone. ask yourself questions like these: is he mobile (i believe this was one of the big factors in our case-ds was crawling by 6mo)? is he developmentally on track? are his fingernails growing? is he cranky or appear to be in pain frequently? what do his stools look like? is he LOSING weight? if you are still bf'ing, i don't see anything abnormal about the frequncy he eats or the # of stools you described. BUT, if you feel that you need to look into it further, by all means do so. i totally believe in trusting your intuition. i understand especially because of your family history. i just wanted to encourage you and let you know that all may very well be just fine. good luck to you and i'll be praying that it's not cf.
 
J

julie

New member
np2,

It was over 20 years ago, but when my husband mark was exclusively breastfed by his mom, he was a chubby little guy. It wasn't until she stopped BF when he was about 12-14 months that he dramatically lost weight. All along when he was being BF, he had some lung issues (bronchitis, pneumonia, colds that lingered forever) but they thought it was just a really bad winter for him. He wasn't tested and diagnosed until about 18 months.

So to answer the last sentence in your post.... YES. I would highly recommend you get your child sweat and genetic tested!
 
J

julie

New member
np2,

It was over 20 years ago, but when my husband mark was exclusively breastfed by his mom, he was a chubby little guy. It wasn't until she stopped BF when he was about 12-14 months that he dramatically lost weight. All along when he was being BF, he had some lung issues (bronchitis, pneumonia, colds that lingered forever) but they thought it was just a really bad winter for him. He wasn't tested and diagnosed until about 18 months.

So to answer the last sentence in your post.... YES. I would highly recommend you get your child sweat and genetic tested!
 
J

julie

New member
np2,

It was over 20 years ago, but when my husband mark was exclusively breastfed by his mom, he was a chubby little guy. It wasn't until she stopped BF when he was about 12-14 months that he dramatically lost weight. All along when he was being BF, he had some lung issues (bronchitis, pneumonia, colds that lingered forever) but they thought it was just a really bad winter for him. He wasn't tested and diagnosed until about 18 months.

So to answer the last sentence in your post.... YES. I would highly recommend you get your child sweat and genetic tested!
 
S

Scarlett81

New member
It wasn't until my mother stopped breastfeeding me that I had symptoms too. From what I hear here, that's pretty common.
Good luck-and find out if he has it. You can start preventative measure immediately.
 
S

Scarlett81

New member
It wasn't until my mother stopped breastfeeding me that I had symptoms too. From what I hear here, that's pretty common.
Good luck-and find out if he has it. You can start preventative measure immediately.
 
S

Scarlett81

New member
It wasn't until my mother stopped breastfeeding me that I had symptoms too. From what I hear here, that's pretty common.
Good luck-and find out if he has it. You can start preventative measure immediately.
 
N

np2

New member
Thanks everyone for your respones. I've been trying not to worry too much because he seems so happy and he is doing so well except that he is not gaining much weight. (He is not losing it either though.)
I'll probably just wait until his next appt and if he has still not gained any weight ask the doctor about CF. Especially if it is normal for breast fed babies to go for some time with out gaining much. He started crawling at 8 months but was always very active before than too.

Just to check though i have no idea what CF poops look like. My son's poops are mushy, orangish brown looking and i usually do see some orange stains on the diapers but he often eats sweet potatoes so i've always attributed it to that. They are very smelly but i have no idea if it is worse than normal. Yesterday he pooped 6 times even though he ate 1/3 less solid foods than he ordinarily does. If this is normal for breastfed babies than i won't worry.

Thank you all!!
 
N

np2

New member
Thanks everyone for your respones. I've been trying not to worry too much because he seems so happy and he is doing so well except that he is not gaining much weight. (He is not losing it either though.)
I'll probably just wait until his next appt and if he has still not gained any weight ask the doctor about CF. Especially if it is normal for breast fed babies to go for some time with out gaining much. He started crawling at 8 months but was always very active before than too.

Just to check though i have no idea what CF poops look like. My son's poops are mushy, orangish brown looking and i usually do see some orange stains on the diapers but he often eats sweet potatoes so i've always attributed it to that. They are very smelly but i have no idea if it is worse than normal. Yesterday he pooped 6 times even though he ate 1/3 less solid foods than he ordinarily does. If this is normal for breastfed babies than i won't worry.

Thank you all!!
 
N

np2

New member
Thanks everyone for your respones. I've been trying not to worry too much because he seems so happy and he is doing so well except that he is not gaining much weight. (He is not losing it either though.)
I'll probably just wait until his next appt and if he has still not gained any weight ask the doctor about CF. Especially if it is normal for breast fed babies to go for some time with out gaining much. He started crawling at 8 months but was always very active before than too.

Just to check though i have no idea what CF poops look like. My son's poops are mushy, orangish brown looking and i usually do see some orange stains on the diapers but he often eats sweet potatoes so i've always attributed it to that. They are very smelly but i have no idea if it is worse than normal. Yesterday he pooped 6 times even though he ate 1/3 less solid foods than he ordinarily does. If this is normal for breastfed babies than i won't worry.

Thank you all!!
 
K

ktsmom

New member
It looks like you have made your decision and I'm glad you have chosen a course.

I'm sorry to respond again, but I had to add that orange staining on the diapers went unrealized by us as a symptom of malabsorption for a long time. It was grease, plain and simple. It looked like chili grease if you had drained it on paper towels and it gravitated towards the edges of the diaper (on the back of the diaper, towards the leg openings).

Again, best of luck to you.

Dana
Mom to Katy (3, cf) and Kyra (6, no cf)
 
K

ktsmom

New member
It looks like you have made your decision and I'm glad you have chosen a course.

I'm sorry to respond again, but I had to add that orange staining on the diapers went unrealized by us as a symptom of malabsorption for a long time. It was grease, plain and simple. It looked like chili grease if you had drained it on paper towels and it gravitated towards the edges of the diaper (on the back of the diaper, towards the leg openings).

Again, best of luck to you.

Dana
Mom to Katy (3, cf) and Kyra (6, no cf)
 
K

ktsmom

New member
It looks like you have made your decision and I'm glad you have chosen a course.

I'm sorry to respond again, but I had to add that orange staining on the diapers went unrealized by us as a symptom of malabsorption for a long time. It was grease, plain and simple. It looked like chili grease if you had drained it on paper towels and it gravitated towards the edges of the diaper (on the back of the diaper, towards the leg openings).

Again, best of luck to you.

Dana
Mom to Katy (3, cf) and Kyra (6, no cf)
 
A

annonymous

New member
ktsmom-
your description of chili grease is of interest to me...you stated, "on the back of the diaper, towards the leg openings", do you mean it soaked through the diaper and you could see it on the outside? Or that it was on the side that her bottom actually touched? I've heard it described this way before, but I just can't seem to picture it in my head. It's not just the poop touching the diaper that spears a little on it, it actually gravitates out a ways?

Anyway, np2-
all babies are different, just as we adults are and what is normal for one may not be for the other. some babies may go once a day or several times a day. he is still little and his digestive system is still maturing. in fact, he may just be more efficient, if you think about it, if we eat 3x a day, we should probably all be going poop 3x a day! getting rid of the old stuff to make room for new food! i think this can actually be more normal for people with healthier diets too. if your baby is on solids now, his poop will definitely have more of an odor and sweet potatoes and carrots can definitely make it appear more orange. if all else is well, try not to worry too much and talk with your doc as soon as your ready.
in the meantime, if you feel like being proactive, make sure your feeding him good healthy fats, like avocado and such. you may also try a fenugreek supplement (found in health food stores), which could help if your milk supply has slowed down for some reason. remember, your breastmilk is the best thing for him and should be the main source of his caloric intake for his 1st year at least!

hugs!!
 
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