Kass

[Guest guest]

Hi Kass: I have not forgotten the other email you sent me - things have just been really hectic at home with Sam and Zach this week. about the weight gain:both of my boys have gone through this a little bit (they are still very tiny for age but they had periods of very rapid weight gain). we got right on it because our philosophy is that while they need good nutrition to thrive, any extra weight is going to make their body have to work that much harder to do anything. Both boys need less than 1/2 of what they should need at their age. This is so different than when they were babies/toddlers and needed 2-3 times the recommended amount. I'm not sure I understand the why but both do receive less than 1000 calories/day. One theory (and I stress these are all just ideas we have discussed) is that as their mitochondria have gotten worse, they just process/use the food and turn it into energy. another reason is that my kids do seem to have a progressive disease and as they are less able to do what they used to do, they quite obviously use less calories than they used to and so just need far less. finally both boys do gain water weight due to the heart failure. both are on a fair amount of lasix. when was the last time Madison had a cardiologist look at her? And the simplest answer: Is she possibly eating more than you know of? I hope you get some answers soon. Though a nutritionist/dietician could help you figure out how to reduce her calories and keep her nutritionally ok, my guess is you might have to have the doctor take the lead in directing the dietician. We have found that the dieticians have been somewhat narrow minded at only looking at their charts of RDA for calories and not at the child and the situation. Annewww.caringbridge.org/wi/zachsam