Question about baby not gaining weight?

Hi Ladies -
I don't post her often but I thought I would ask a question to help my sister in law.
My neice is 8 1/2 months old and only weights 15lbs. I know that this isn't that small, but her birth weight was 10lbs 5oz Ever since she was born she has either gained weight verrryy slowly or not gained anything at all. She has reflux so that was a big issue in the beginning and my SIL has tried numerous formulas before finally settling on Neocate within the last few weeks. It seems to be helping a lot along with her meds, but she still doesn't seem to be gaining anything.
SIL is at her wits end and I feel so bad for her, but I'm just not sure what exactly to do to help? They live upstate and have taken her to a GI up there, but with no real assistance.
Any BTDT mama's on here that could give me advise, or at least support to send over to my SIL would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

Re: Question about baby not gaining weight?

I guess I really don't have any real advice and I can totally sympathize her plight since we are going through a similar situation. DD is 16lbs at 11 months but she was premature and only weighed 2lbs 13oz at birth. DD has severe reflux and vomits whole bottles about 2x times daily. She is on prevacid, zantac and elecare and still did not see a dramatic difference. We were very close to a feeding tube bc she did not gain any real weight in a month. We were also considering surgery for the reflux but since there was a possibility that it would not work we decided against surgery.

However, working in conjunction with the GI, we have increased the calories in the formula (24 calories instead of 20)by adding more formula to the volume of water (I do not recommend this unless she is given the ok by a dr.). Additionally we resumed an overnight feed to get in additional calories to help with weight gain. Although DD still vomits large amounts, we have been able to get her to gain weight with these strategies (1lb in the last month). We are really just buying time until she grows out of it, which we are hoping is soon since most babies with reflux grow out of it around a year (give or take).

So my only real advice is to consult with the GI on some strategies and possible tests to determine the reason for lack of weight gain which could be a number of reasons. Have they run any tests on your niece? DD had an upper GI series and we were also considering an endoscopy but since we are hopefully approaching the year mark we also decided against the endoscopy.

I hope and your niece overcomes this.

Re: Question about baby not gaining weight?

My DS is 20 months and just hit 20 lbs this week. He's has had every GI test available and everything came back fine. My is just a small baby with a small appetite. The doctors and his nutritionist aren't concerned and I have finally stopped worrying about it since he is developing fine in every other way.