angela  wrote:>
> Hi all!!
> well we have taken chris to a nutritionist and it did help in away if nothing
> else just to make me feel like I am doing everything possible for him... they
> were able to help us by showing us things we could add to his neocate( through
> his g-button on a 24 hr milk drip) currently we add pollycose and MCT oil to
> bring his calories up to 36 cal formula this has helped a little but of course
> is no great change he is gaining  about a oz every week or two.obviously his
> weight gain is of great concern to us since he has been diagnosed as failure
> to thrive.Nancy does your daughter have any other digestive problems? just
> curious. chris has hirshprungs,reflux,failure to thrive,milk protien
> allergy,chronic anemia, and is developmentally delayed. he is hypotonic in his
> trunk and hypertonic in his extremities. I was just wondering are all of you
> thats children are behind on the weight are they also behind on there fine and
> gross motor skills? I have asked if they thought that the reason that chris is
> so far behind developmentally was because he is weak from his nutrition being
> so bad but they have said that they didnt think that the nutrition could be
> the only cause for being so far behind. anyways I was just trying to figure
> out exactly how much could be from his nutrition being so bad and how much
> could be from something else. anyways I guess I should stop rambleing I will
> talk to ya later. take care
> angela


I actually started this thread a while ago in regards to my son with many
allergies (soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, legumes, all grains, a few
fruits and vegs), and eczema and being a  recently diagnosed 'failure to
thrive'. I have always rejected this label because it is supposed to be
used when lack of
weight gain is entirely inexplicable.
          In our case, we felt his intestines
had been damaged from too many allergens consumed and that he simply
stopped growing while recovering. Now he seems to be gaining a bit, maybe
half pound a month (at 30 mos. he is 25lbs) and is at the bottom but not
off the chart (he didn't gain or grow really at all for 6 months between
18 and 24 months).

 Even at his worst, physically, weightwise, he did not
suffer developmental or motor delays so I would not necessarily equate
nutrition with cause of that.  In fact, if the nutritionist tells you that
the calories/vitamins are being taken care of, then you must look to other
sources/causes too.  Our nutritionist evaluation also said that despite
allergies, we were doing all we could and he was sufficient in calories,
in vitamins, etc. for his age.  Then why wasn't he growing, I would ask
myself?  My own conclusion was that he was probably celiac and damaged
from gluten consumption in infancy, and needed to recover, OR that he was
still recovering from a myriad of allergies.  On the one hand,
nutritionists seem to make things easy because they let us count numbers
and vitamins and this comforts us to see the intake but since we don't
know how the body is utilizing the nutrients once they get in... we can
get a false sense of security.