GI

No discharge from the GI. She weighed "officially" 18 lbs 12 ozs but the doctor and I agree that's more likely 19 lbs. At any rate, still not on the growth curve. He's not changing the amount of medicine, only asked if we'd put heavy whipping cream in her pediasure cups. Other than that we check in again in 2 months.

GI appointment

After being postponed several times due to scheduling conflicts, we finally made it to the GI. Our last appointment was in Sept. We were supposed to go back in Dec but he had nothing open until Jan and then in Jan he had to schedule. So here we are.

She still weighs 17 lbs 11 ozs and is 30.5 inches long. The exact same weight and length as her 18 month check up about 2+ weeks ago. I was not thrilled about that but the overall appointment was good. He said she looked healthy, not wasting away and still gaining, albeit more slowly. He is not ready to cut us loose just yet, but we're coming back in 2 months instead of 3 and if she is still gaining at that time, we will probably be cut loose. He said we're not out of the woods yet but we are VERY close!

GI Follow up

She weighed in at 13 pounds, 15 ounces. I was NOT happy. She gained 10 ounces in two months. The GI was not upset about her growth, but we had both hoped for more weight. I explained that now she's crawling, and learning to walk in PT, and we try our damnedest to get her to eat all we can but she's schizophrenic about her eating. She's not on a schedule, she won't eat certain things at certain times (sometimes the only thing we can get in her are cheerios, other days it's all about the bottle). She's turning 1 year in just 3 weeks so she's at the age where their weight levels off and their appetite diminishes. He agreed that all those things make for normal baby appetite. However, Ellie cannot afford to be a normal baby. So, our prime directive is to stop the bottle, add in more table food (still with whipping cream and butter), add in pediasure to her sippy cups, and an RX to increase appetite. It's called Periactin. It's an old benedryl concoction, used to treat hay fever and allergies but it also works to stimulate appetite. We do have to watch for the side effect of extreme drowsiness. At her one year appointment we are looking for her to be at about 15 pounds. I don't know what else to do, but she simply CANNOT have a feeding tube. She'll just rip it out all the time. She's smart, she's strong and she's FAST.

The GI Dr

HOORAY!!! 12 lba, 9 ozs. The GI dr was a fantastic appointment! According to Dr. Seth Marcus' records, Ellie gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches since December. She seemed 100% fine to him. According to the chart he had on her she had stayed on the same curve. He thinks perhaps the nutritionist was comparing Ellie to a normal baby growth curve, which is horribly inaccurate. So the pedi and the Gi doctor both agree Ellie is doing great. Only the nutritionist seems to have other ideas. So she's outvoted lol. In any event, Dr Marcus also gave us the go-ahead to add some butter to her veggies and some heavy whipping cream to her fruits. Yum! He also said we should check back in 2 months. He did say he was going to see if he could find a more accurate chart by which to measure her, but the growth curve he had was steady. SO HOORAY! Good news all around. :-)

Also on the positive side of things, we are expecting a tooth to pop through any day now. The last few days Ellie has been cranky and extremely clingy. No high fever, only 99-99.4. No big drool. She wouldn't take her fingers out of her mouth but what else is new. Last night she was inconsoleable so in a last ditch effort to contain the screaming I put baby orajel on her. 180 degree turn around. Entirely different baby. Happy, laughing, playing in her exersaucer, went right to bed without incident.

I also called the pedi anyway since her 10 days of amox was up and she had no change. His idea? Might be allergies. Isn't that what I said two weeks ago? Ah well, to be continued, as always!