Hi everyone,
I have not posted in a while but I still read the boards.
My 5 yr old (6 in June) with CF weighs about 52 pounds and is almost 4 ft tall. He is not a small kid by any means. Lately he has struggled with weight gain. For a few months he was gaining nothing and then he put on about 2 pounds. Since the day he was born all I've heard is how many calories he needs to eat. Like most kids he can be picky but he also has severe food allergies, the biggest challenge being wheat. He eats really well for a kid and I'm tired of trying to force the issue and get him to eat more when he's already full. The problem is when we go to clinic they see that the trend in his BMI is going down because of the difficult time he has had gaining lately and they get concerned. They expect him to continue to grow around the 90% like he did when he was a baby/toddler. Neither my husband or I are big-- he's 5'7", I'm 5"2. I have two other kids, one who has always been at about 25% and one who is about 50%. He tends to be more like the smaller one. We add extra calories whenever we can but he is a very active kid and is not into eating a whole lot. Am I stressing myself out too much by worrying about this? The clinic has hinted that they may like to try an appetite stimulant, but she warned me that it could make him very sleepy. He's already on so many meds and I really don't want to add any more. Even though I hate and am terrified of the idea of a g-tube, I feel like that may be a better option that trying to force him to eat all the time if things get to that point. I guess I'm just looking for thoughts about whether your clinic/drs are a little too focused on weight gain.
I have not posted in a while but I still read the boards.
My 5 yr old (6 in June) with CF weighs about 52 pounds and is almost 4 ft tall. He is not a small kid by any means. Lately he has struggled with weight gain. For a few months he was gaining nothing and then he put on about 2 pounds. Since the day he was born all I've heard is how many calories he needs to eat. Like most kids he can be picky but he also has severe food allergies, the biggest challenge being wheat. He eats really well for a kid and I'm tired of trying to force the issue and get him to eat more when he's already full. The problem is when we go to clinic they see that the trend in his BMI is going down because of the difficult time he has had gaining lately and they get concerned. They expect him to continue to grow around the 90% like he did when he was a baby/toddler. Neither my husband or I are big-- he's 5'7", I'm 5"2. I have two other kids, one who has always been at about 25% and one who is about 50%. He tends to be more like the smaller one. We add extra calories whenever we can but he is a very active kid and is not into eating a whole lot. Am I stressing myself out too much by worrying about this? The clinic has hinted that they may like to try an appetite stimulant, but she warned me that it could make him very sleepy. He's already on so many meds and I really don't want to add any more. Even though I hate and am terrified of the idea of a g-tube, I feel like that may be a better option that trying to force him to eat all the time if things get to that point. I guess I'm just looking for thoughts about whether your clinic/drs are a little too focused on weight gain.