Thursday, March 19, 2009

Kathryn's New Weight-Gain Diet

As you probably know, Kathryn is definitely on the petite side. We joke about having given her a complex because ever since we found out we were having a baby we've called her "Tiny". However, for a while we have been a little concerned about how small she is. She has always eaten regularly and well (at least we thought so) and has been developing normally in every other way, so we figured she was fine. She was only 11 lbs (3rd percentile) at her 4 month check-up but her doctor wasn't overly concerned about it, so we thought it was okay. Well, she had her 6 month check-up on Tuesday and had only gained 1 ounce since her 4 month check-up! I was really surprised because I thought she had gained at least some weight over the past two months. Needless to say, her doctor was surprised and concerned as well. She had me feed Kathryn there and then we weighed her again to see how much she ate. She only ate about 4 oz, so the doctor said she was probably just not getting enough to eat. But just to make sure nothing else was wrong, she sent us over to The Children's Hospital to get her blood and urine tested. This made for a rough day for Kathryn because she had already gotten 4 shots at the doctors office and then had to get poked 3 times in the heel to fill the 3 vials of blood they needed. She was quite a trooper though, and even smiled for a picture to show off her cool stickers the nurse at the hospital gave her.
Our doctor called back on Wednesday and told us that the tests came back normal so that was a relief. This meant that Kathryn's lack of weight gain is most likely because she's not getting enough to eat. I feel really bad because I've always thought she was eating well and enough (she usually stays on for 30 or 40 minutes) and she's always seemed satisfied when she's done, but I guess I'm not making enough milk. So I've started supplementing with formula at every other feeding and we'll go in sometime next week to check her weight again. She's been taking the bottles well, so hopefully we can plump her up in no time. If only we all could have this problem :)

5 comments:

Dave H said...

i'm glad the only problem is that she needs to eat more!! i'm sure you'll have her nice and plump in no time!

Sara @ Our Best Bites said...

Lucky girl. I wish I needed to go on a weight-gain diet, lol. Tyler had some problems gaining weight when he was first born (surprising since he was giant!) and I remember feeling like such a failure since it was my job to feed him. I hope you don't ever feel like that because she' a happy, healthy little girl! She'll get beefed up in no time on her super diet, lol.

jaredelizabeth said...

I had to do the same thing with Mason @ 8 months cause he hadn't been getting enough for quite a while.....I had no idea!.....oops. good luck with the bottles.....formula is expensive huh!

Emily said...

Thanks guys. I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to. And yeah, formula is SO expensive! I'm going to try pumping some too, so we'll see how that goes.

Sarah and Mark said...

Cute picture! I hope she is plumping up for you. I'm sure it will happen quickly!