increase calories

We met with the pediatric GI specialist today. Basically, her "weight" age is 6.5 months. Her weight/height ratio puts her at about the 1-2 percentile. However, she doesn't "look" malnourished or anything. After conversing with the doctor, and he hearing how she has simply refused the bottle, he believes the issue is more of an input problem than anything else. We're looking at more of a "psychological" issue. The doctor feels pretty confident that she can start gaining weight again and we're shooting for at least half an ounce a day.

He gave us several samples of some soy formulas and a recipe to make the water/formula mixture more dense to allow for more calories per drink. I'm still not confident that she will drink the formula from a sippy cup, though. She has been doing MUCH better with the sippy cup with water/juice...but we were told no more juice!

We were also told not to introduce her to whole milk until around 16-18 months. He said milk is not simply an allergy problem...something about the way the fat/calories/etc. are combined isn't adequate for growing infants. Since she is behind in her growth, we need to wait until she is more like an "average" one year old before starting her on whole milk.

We tried the formula today in the sippy cup and she isn't "chugging" it like she was with the diluted juice. Now this might be partial in part because we added the plug...we started that over the weekend. But I can definitely tell she's not as interested in sipping on it like she was. Hopefully that gets better. Until then, we're going to randomly give her an ounce via syringe throughout the day.

One interesting thing the doctor suggested was to add a teaspoon (maybe tablespoon??) of melted butter to her foods. So we will be starting that.

I'm on a mission to find some healthy ways to increase her calorie intake throughout the day. Here is a list I have compiled from friends & the internet. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Pastina (or ditalini) with butter (or cream cheese) and grated cheese
Boiled mashed potatoes with butter (or cream cheese) and cheese
Grilled cheese (coating bread with a healthy dose of butter)
Avocados - mashed - can add cream cheese
Whole Milk Yogurt mixed w/fruit (we have tried this before plain as a drink...she did NOT like it)
Cheese - Cheddar, Colby, Jack, American - we have already been doing this but will definitely increase

We have an appointment in 2 months to see how she is improving (hopefully). If not, he'll probably want tests done. However, he seemed very confident that this will work. We'll continue to pray.