Jillian
January 16th, 2004, 11:14 AM
I know it's common for newborns and babies to be diagnosed failure to thrive, but I was wondering if anyone else had a toddler who got the diagnosis? Did your ped run any tests? Did they figure anything out?
Janelle has had growth issues forever...IUGR when I was still pregnant with her, losing 17 ounces in the first 5 days of life, severe reflux...etc. She was diagnosed officially with ftt 3 times, once at 8 weeks old when she was still under 7lbs, but then we started zantac/reglan and she gained weight like a champ for awhile, and then again when she was 12lbs 6 ounces at 6 months, but then she started gaining on her own again, and now just recently at 15 months. At 12 months she was 16lbs 9ounces, at 15 months 16lbs 6ounces, and now at 16 months 16lbs 5ounces. So she is steadily losing an ounce a month.
We did all sorts of tests last week, urine, stool, a TON of blood work, re-did the PKU testing (though this time we tested for like 60+ diseases instead of the usual 8 that are tested for in Michigan), bone density testing, chest x-rays to make sure there was no underlying infection (the urine and some of the blood was for this to)...
So far the only thing that has been at all out of the ordinary is that they took 3 urines at very different times of the day and all of them had high ketone levels. Ketones just basically mean that your body is burning it's fat stores for energy, obviously something her body shouldn't be doing...in fact part of atkins is to put yourself into ketosis (high level of ketones) cause then you are using your fat stores instead of carbs for energy. Anyway, this could possibly be normal for her, but it could also signify some other things, so now we have to do a few more tests. We are going to test her kidney function, do a diabetes test (this is going to be a fasting blood sugar test), and check to see how fast she metabolizes things. These will all be done in the first couple weeks of february assuming I'm still doing ok (complete bed rest right now :banghead: ). We are at a loss here, a huge part of me wants everything to just be negative, but another part wants there to be something, anything really, that is causing this so we can treat it and move on. Not all of the original blood work is back yet...some of it takes over a month! :jawdrop: But so far, except for the ketones, everything else has been perfectly fine.
Janelle has had growth issues forever...IUGR when I was still pregnant with her, losing 17 ounces in the first 5 days of life, severe reflux...etc. She was diagnosed officially with ftt 3 times, once at 8 weeks old when she was still under 7lbs, but then we started zantac/reglan and she gained weight like a champ for awhile, and then again when she was 12lbs 6 ounces at 6 months, but then she started gaining on her own again, and now just recently at 15 months. At 12 months she was 16lbs 9ounces, at 15 months 16lbs 6ounces, and now at 16 months 16lbs 5ounces. So she is steadily losing an ounce a month.
We did all sorts of tests last week, urine, stool, a TON of blood work, re-did the PKU testing (though this time we tested for like 60+ diseases instead of the usual 8 that are tested for in Michigan), bone density testing, chest x-rays to make sure there was no underlying infection (the urine and some of the blood was for this to)...
So far the only thing that has been at all out of the ordinary is that they took 3 urines at very different times of the day and all of them had high ketone levels. Ketones just basically mean that your body is burning it's fat stores for energy, obviously something her body shouldn't be doing...in fact part of atkins is to put yourself into ketosis (high level of ketones) cause then you are using your fat stores instead of carbs for energy. Anyway, this could possibly be normal for her, but it could also signify some other things, so now we have to do a few more tests. We are going to test her kidney function, do a diabetes test (this is going to be a fasting blood sugar test), and check to see how fast she metabolizes things. These will all be done in the first couple weeks of february assuming I'm still doing ok (complete bed rest right now :banghead: ). We are at a loss here, a huge part of me wants everything to just be negative, but another part wants there to be something, anything really, that is causing this so we can treat it and move on. Not all of the original blood work is back yet...some of it takes over a month! :jawdrop: But so far, except for the ketones, everything else has been perfectly fine.