Failure to Thrive

Last Monday, the 20th, we took Jaxton in to see his Dr. At his 6 month visit back in August, the Dr prescribed him a special multivitamin to help him gain some weight... he was 6 months and weighed less than 15 lbs, and has yet to double his birth weight. While on this vitamin, he only gained 8 oz, and he went from the 8th percentile for his age to the 3rd (roughly this means that out of 100 children, there would only be 2 smaller than Jaxton with regards to his weight). This is a reason for concern, considering that when he was born, he was in the 38th percentile and has rapidly been dropping since about 4 months. Dr. Allen is extremely patient with us and came in and sat us down and calmly told us that this has nothing to do with anything we are doing as parents, we are feeding him and taking care of him, but something must be going on to prevent him from absorbing all of the calories and nutrients in the breast milk and solids that he is eating. In every other way he is right on track, if not slightly ahead. He is crawling and pulling himself up to things. He is walking with the support of something solid to hold on to. He plays and laughs and lately he is mimicking when we shake our head "no" or nod "yes". Dr Allen directed us to start adding formula to his rice cereal three times a day (and if you know me, I am not pro formula) and feed him smaller meals every 2-3 hours (which should prevent him from spitting anything up, to retain all that he can). He sent us directly over to the hospital to have blood work done and to have an ultrasound done of his stomach to see if his stomach was preventing food from passing through, which could be a cause of the lack of weight gain. The orders called his diagnosis "Failure to Thrive". They called us the next day and said that both of those tests looked fine and that we needed to collect a stool sample so that it could be tested as well. And of course, being the mom, I got the extremely fun pleasure of collecting that sample. So we spent more time waiting... and waiting. The dr's office called yesterday and let us know that fecal white blood cells were found in the sample and we were being referred to a specialist in St George for more testing. Jaxton is going to a gastroenterologist (they specialize in disorders of the digestive system). I am working a grave so I spent most of the night looking up information on these specific dr's and what he may look at with regards to Jaxton. However, I have had little luck because most of the information I found talked about Jax also being "short statured" which clearly, he is not. I have no knowledge of the medical profession, nor do I pretend to, so most of the information made no sense to me, but we are hoping to hear from the specialist in the next day or two to make an appointment and get this show on the road. This is extremely stressful for me (kyle seems to handle it better than I do) In the information I was reading, it said that surgery is not usually something that is needed, it may be something as simple as changing his diet. It talked a lot about Celiac's Disease, which basically means he can't break down gluten... however, to be honest, I don't know really what food he has had that has it in it. I can't wait to find out what is going on! I am so lucky to have my sweet and wonderful husband who insists on being as involved as possible accompanying me to multiple dr appointments and making sure he can work his schedule out so we can do these things together. I know in my heart that my sweet boy will be just fine, but my head can't seem to wrap around that concept. I feel nervous, anxious and sad. All in all, we have been blessed up until this point, and I am confident that the Lord will continue to bless our family. I have been living by this saying (and Dr. Pepper, Peanut Butter Twix, and fudgesicles the past couple of days)

"When life becomes more than you can stand~ kneel".



We appreciate all of the love and support we are getting. Hopefully this is an easy fix and our little boy can continue to progress on schedule. We will keep everyone posted as we find out more and more information.