9 month old lost weight - is it because of reflux?

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Permalink Reply by a mummy on February 26, 2010 at 22:03

hello
sorry I cant be of help but my wee girl is 4 months and was feeding terribly with silent reflux. I could only get about 14-18oz in her in a day. She is quite content and chubby cheeked so of course the gp fobbed me off with the usual colic excuse. Anyway the HV during a routine check realised she had dipped from the top 75 to the bottom 25th centile and all of a sudden they took my worries seriously and gave her Zantac which seemed to work quite well. After a month of feeding better and taking in a lot more milk I went back to the HV feeling quite pleased with myself and expecting a big increase in her weight only to be told she had not gained much at all and is now in the bottom 9 centile. I am really quite surprised about this and dont know what else to do. My health visitor is a bit patronising and says things like " oh she needs so many ounces of milk a day mimimum" or "she needs to gain more weight" as if that can just happen. I too have been referred to a paed but I dont know how long that will take. I will be interested to know what your one says.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Parker on February 26, 2010 at 23:16

Hi thanks for your reply. This may set your mind at rest a little. Mia started on the 98th and when the paed saw her the other day she had dropped gradually to the 25th. As I mentioned before she gets 'reviewed' every couple of months for various other concerns. Im fortunate that he picked up on the reflux and is a very good paed, It can be incredibly frustrating especially with GP's and HV's patronising you! anyway he was not concerned with the weight. at the time it did show a steady increase despite slipping the centiles. however when I called to say her refux was worse and she had lost the weight he referred me to the Gastro doc (this is because he says a gastro needs to be involved once they start prescribing omeprozole). Im hoping he'll be more specialist to give answers on weight gain and nutritian etc. Im still waiting for that oppt and hoping it will be quick.
I understand your concerns particulally when you feel you've got lots into her. Mia eats so well its confusing. I hope she starts chubbing up and I hope that Mia's centile drops rest your mind a bit. The paed is incredably thorough, Mia has had blood tests, and MRI and an EEG ( all normal, obviously not just for reflux) but if he was concerned about the weight he'd have jumped on it.

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Permalink Reply by a mummy on March 1, 2010 at 14:36

hello
thanks for the reply. It is so worrying but when I read some peoples stories on this, I think its not as bad. According to my gp it can indicate an intolerance or allergy to lactose or something so I need to hand in a stool sample for them to test for lactose in the stool as she may be intolerant. They are even talking about admitting my little one to hospital so fingers crossed we will get to the bottom of it before that. Best of luck with your little one.

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