Feeding Issues

The last few days have been pretty stressful. Jill’s been on the verge of being re-hospitalized. On Sunday, after 4 days of eating extremely poorly, Jill hardly ate anything for about 10-12 hours. We were extremely worried about dehydration. We talked to her pediatrician and an on-call nurse. Basically, a baby needs to go the emergency room if they don’t have a wet diaper at least once every eight hours. So at that point we were scrambling to figure out how to get her to eat. I had Bryan running to different stores, buying Pedialyte and a few other things that might be helpful. The doctor wanted her to drink 40 ml of fluid every 2 hours. For the last few days she has barely been meeting these guidelines.



On Monday, we started giving her a new medicine. For about eight weeks, she had “thrush” (a yeast infection) in the mouth and throat. We were under the impression that it had been cleared up, but the doctor now thinks that she may have a yeast infection in her esophagus which is why it is so painful for her to eat. I think her theory is probably correct. The other day when I couldn’t get her to drink milk, I noticed she would drink cold Pedialyte. Since then I’ve been chilling her bottles in the freezer and she actually tolerates them a little more. I knew milk temperature was important to babies, but I never would have guessed that ice cold milk would be better. But I guess it is probably soothing for her throat.


We are on our third formula. I’m hoping that she will tolerate this formula better. It is a hypoallergenic formula that is supposed to be much easier to digest. While her eating has still been terrible, she seems to be doing a little better with this formula.


I asked the feeding therapist what are the most common reasons why babies won’t eat. She said they are thrush, acid reflux, and gas. Unfortunately, Jill has all three at the same time.


At the doctor’s appointment yesterday, we learned that Jill’s weight has stayed the same for the last two weeks (11 lbs, 8 ounces). She has fallen off of her growth curve. If things don’t turn around, we are going to have to seriously consider the possibility of having a feeding tube for her.


There are things in life that you never want to experience. I really don’t want Jill to be admitted to the pediatric floor of the hospital to undergo extensive tests on why she is not eating. If she has to go the hospital again, I’m not going to be able to leave her this time. (She smiles at me every time I walk into the room). And I really don’t want to have to learn how to feed Jill through a feeding tube. But we are quickly running out of options.


If you are praying for our family, please pray:


1) Jill will heal completely from thrush and there will be no reoccurrence (she has taken the same medication twice before).

2) Her acid reflux problems will diminish and no longer interfere with her ability to eat.

3) Jill will quickly start gaining weight and catch up to where she should be on her growth curve (if she was currently one pound heavier she would be considered a healthy weight).

4) Jill will enjoy eating and no longer experience pain or discomfort while eating.