A More Personal Story to Share

Anyone who knows us well, knows the battles we've had with SB over the course of the past 3 1/2 years. Basically from the time he was 2 weeks old until the present. Although it's a personal story, I would like to share it so that I could possibly help anyone in the same position and educate those parents who may be confused by the misinformation that is out there.

On a beautiful summer day in 2009, our SB was born 3 weeks early. Weighing 6 pounds 13.8 ounces and 20.5 inches long. He was in the 50th percentile and 100% healthy. The first 2 weeks were perfect and seemed to be going very smoothly.

I had every intention to long-term breastfeed. I never even let the words "formula" come out of my mouth. Those were disgusting words to me, and I could do better than that. Well, 13 days after his birth I had horribly cracked and bleeding nipples; which led to mastitis forming (and now I know that if I would've had a better support group and better LLC's I could've kept breastfeeding; but that's a whole other blog post). After pumping an entire bottle of blood one night, I decided that I had to stop breastfeeding. I went to the doctor for meds and started SB on formula right away. I felt AWFUL for doing this. I had read all the research possible on the benefits of breastfeeding and the nasty ingredients in formula. But now I was feeding my precious newborn the nasty chemical-filled concoction. I felt I had no other options, and after all, the doctor stood behind my decision.

**Let me clarify that I'm not dissing on people who formula feed. But I think everyone out there deserves to know about the struggles and complications that can come from it. Education is the key to everything. Do your own research and have peace of mind about what you choose to do. And if your gut is pulling you somewhere, trust in it! Motherly instincts are there for a reason!**

Two days into formula feeding I saw the first signs of how awful formula was for SB. My son was horribly constipated; whereas prior to this he was the standard breast milk pooper and a champ at it. I called his doctor (one of a million phone calls I made) and she informed me that switching to formula would cause this and it's normal. I was appalled, but felt I couldn't do anything about it and would just deal with it. After SB not having a bm (bowel movement) for 7 days, we took him into the doctor. What they did was horrible and caused me pain to watch. They had to physically pull the bm out. They then had us switch formulas, and warned that every time we switched he would get constipated, but that it would regulate; it was just the 'norm'.  They instructed us to use suppositories to help him so they wouldn't have to physically pull the bm out again. We basically had to use one suppository every other day. It was horrid, but we had to do it. They also suggested that we try diluted fruit juice; because it would cause cramps and those cramps were supposed to push the bm out.

Yes, I was instructed to induce intestinal cramping on my newborn to help him pass a bm. For those of you who didn't know that's what fruit juice does and why it's so widely used to make a kid poop, here's something for you to read: 

"Other laxatives work by fermenting sugars and producing gas. These include apple juice, lactulose and maltsupex. These are not very good treatments, because they may cause gas cramps." 
Childhood Constipation (Check the link out if you have a child suffering from the same thing. Lots of good information there).
Yes it is safe, but I'm not comfortable giving my newborn/infant/child something that I know causes intestinal cramping, because I personally know how that feels and it can hurt. I don't want to do anything that intentionally causes my child pain.

While all of the bm issues were going on, we also noticed he had refluxing symptoms. The doctor put him on Prevacid. And at the same time we were also instructed to add cereal to his bottles to help him hold down the formula, because he was projectile vomiting frequently due to the reflux. So we began adding rice cereal to his bottles. Cereal constipates, and rice is the worst of them. So, the doctor then had us add Miralax to his bottles to help relieve his constipation.

So let me make this clear to you: By the time he was 3 months old, he was on formula, he was taking Prevacid for reflux, he had added-cereal to his bottles to help hold his formula down, and he was taking Miralax to help relieve his chronic constipation...and when Miralax wasn't working we would use physical stimulation or suppositories to assist in a bm.

Doesn't that seem like a lot for a 3 month old?

At the same time, and what went unnoticed as the beginning of his long-term issues, was the fact that he could never consume much formula at once. The largest of his bottles were 4oz...and it took him a while to finish them; if he could even finish them. I think there were maybe 2 times he drank a 6oz bottle. People would make comments like "that's a small bottle for a 6-9 month old" and I thought they were crazy. I knew no different. He had always been on the low-end of the normal when it came to food intake. Plus, at 4 months old, per the doctor's suggestion, we had started him on spoon-fed meals in addition to his formula bottles...maybe he just wasn't as hungry for formula anymore. We were doing what the doctor told us to do for a formula-fed baby, and I was confident we were doing the right thing.

What also was happening at the same time as the above mentioned, was the fact that his percentiles were slowly dropping. He went from the 50th percentiles, to the 25th percentiles by the time he was 6 months. But this was pushed aside as him taking after myself and being petite. Plus, most kids drop percentiles after birth during their first year of life. At 6 months old we were able to wean him from his reflux medicine, as it seemed he no longer had that issue. So yayyyy, we were down one problem!

His constipation was still an issue, and the doctor wanted to rule out a physical problem. So we were referred to a GI specialist at Riley. The doctor did a physical exam to check for Hirschsprung's Disease and SB was negative for it. The doctor instructed us to up his daily dosage of Miralax to half an adult dosage. So that's what we did.

When he was 8 months old he got an awful sinus infection. It took 2 rounds of antibiotics (and one month) to fight it off. For his 9 month checkup we noticed he had lost 1lb during that sinus infection, and he was now at the 10th percentile. One pound for an 8-9month old is quite a bit. I noticed his skin appeared a little dull and thinner. Not that thick-squishy-baby-fat kind of skin. The doctor said he would bounce back, and we just dismissed any signs we may have seen at the time.

After that doctor appointment we started him on self-feeding finger foods in addition to his formula. He was wanting to be independent in his feedings, so we allowed that. I served him homemade foods (had been doing homemade baby purees prior to this) like baked pears chunks, roasted diced carrots, well-steamed broccoli, fresh soft fruit chunks, etc. He did great with finger foods. But never consumed much. This is when our battles began with getting him to eat his meals.

Every meal became a chore. It became a constant bribing with SB. "Please, just take one more bite?" "You have to eat this food! Please!" "If you don't eat this, we cannot go outside to play". And on and on and on. Meals took at least an hour and were miserable for all parties involved. I was always worried that he wasn't eating enough to nourish his body. And to me, I could tell by the thickness of his skin. He looked pale and slightly malnourished.

For his 1 year checkup he was below the 10th percentiles...like close to the 5th percentiles. He basically hadn't gained any weight from his 9 month checkup. The doctor asked us how his eating habits were, and we told the doctor it was a daily struggle. His constipation was a daily struggle and his eating was a daily struggle. Meals were miserable. It was basically us force-feeding him. Even his formula bottles were force-fed. Doctor told us it was normal for toddlers to do this, and it would eventually pass. 

We were finally able to wean him from his formula and gave him Vit D milk by 13 months old. Due to his unwillingness to eat/drink, we kept his milk in a bottle because that was the only sure way we knew he was getting nutrition; and it was measured, which made us feel better about knowing exactly what he was getting. We also were given a calorie additive that we put in every bottle, with the hopes that it would get him to gain weight. We kept him on the bottles until he was 16 months old, and at that point he willingly drank milk from his sippy.

By the time he was 2, he was very irregular in his bm's, even with daily doses of Miralax (he was on an adult daily dose by this time). He didn't really have an appetite and every meal was a battle. He ate so little that it worried my husband and I. His daily intake measured equivalent to approximately 1 cup of food. And he was VERY picky about the little bit of food he did eat. We requested to be seen by a specialist because we felt in our guts that something was just not right with him. It didn't feel or seem right that a 2 year old had dropped from 50th percentiles at birth to the 1st percentiles he was now in at age 2; add to that that his pediatrician now labeled him as a 'failure to thrive'.

We were referred to a dietitian at Riley Hospital. We saw this dietitian for a few months, and it got us nowhere at all. In fact, it was more frustrating than anything. This dietitian pointed the finger at us parents and disregarded anything we told her otherwise. He was put on a high-fat diet though, and we did stick with that because it made sense.

I don't remember the exact age he was when we saw the GI specialist at Peyton Manning's Children's Hospital, but I know the twins were little bitty babies at the time. The specialist had considered many things as the culprit, but didn't want to do any invasive testing until some easily-fixed things were ruled out first. We were told to do a 'cleanse' on SB (the Clean Out Phase) and then continue the adult-daily-dosage of Miralax after that. We did that multiple times throughout the first 9 months we were with that doctor. He eventually got a wrist x-ray to check his growth (Bone Age Study) and that came back normal. They also did multiple blood tests to check for food allergies as a possibility as to why he was so incredibly picky with his food (at the time he had a list of maybe 10 foods he would eat). All tests came back negative for anything wrong. He had perfect tests.

We were referred to a dietitian again, but we declined since the previous one at Riley did not help us in any way at all. Plus, we as parents, had the gut feeling that it had nothing to do with what we fed him. He was already on a high-fat diet, and had been ever since we saw that first dietitian. There was something else wrong, but we didn't know what. He seemed to have no appetite at all. He rarely asked for food. And he wasn't gaining any weight.

Finally, after all the testing and trial/error with the GI specialist, that doctor put him on an appetite stimulant. The doctor said it seems like he truly has no appetite at all, and maybe if we stimulated it we would see some weight gain. The doctor explained how chronic constipation would cause constant nausea, which in turn would make someone not WANT to eat because it would make them feel more sick. Well, it's a vicious cycle.

                  

After 3 months on the appetite stimulant, we saw weight gain!! The first real weight gain he had had in what felt and seemed like more than a year! This was right before he turned 3. He also grew in height, which had been lagging behind the norm this whole time, too. When the doctor noted the positive feedback with the appetite stimulant, she was able to give a diagnosis (aka reason for this entire problem). She told us that this had meant that SB's chronic constipation had caused every bit of this. Here's what she explained to us:

Switch from breast milk to formula caused initial constipation.

Cereal being added to formula (due to reflux) was doubly constipating.

Constipation causes nausea.

Nausea causes one to refrain from eating (yes, even infants realize that eating while nauseous causes them discomfort).

Refraining from eating causes constipation.

Chronic constipation causes a child to hold in the bm due to it being painful.

Bm gets so backed up that there is no room for food in the stomach, causing one to refrain from eating.

Always having an empty stomach causes nausea.

Eventually this cycle led to his hunger-hormone being suppressed.

Lack of a hunger-hormone leads to no appetite!

No appetite leads to not eating!

Not eating leads to constipation!

You seeing the pattern here???? The doctor said he basically was anorexic (and in fact, she used that scary word). And all due to chronic constipation.

We've been treating him with Miralax every day since the time he was 3 months old. It doesn't look like we'll be stopping anytime soon. This year (when he was 3.5years old) he had another test done. He got an endoscopy to check for reasons he had been vomiting after eating starting a few months prior. They found nothing abnormal. Just another issue caused directly from his constipation. He's old enough to know we are giving him Miralax, and he's old enough to trick us by dumping the medicine out into the sink when he doesn't want to take it...which causes him to get backed up on occasion. And that was causing him to vomit. He was nauseous from constipation, and we made him eat...he then vomited all the food up. Vicious cycle....again.

I whole heartedly believe that me giving him formula has messed with his GI tract development, making it harder for him to digest foods (breast milk has natural bacteria that help coat the intestines; formula lacks this). Yes, he may have genetically inherited some intestinal issues as far as regular constipation goes (since that does happen), but I believe that has only been exaggerated by the harm formula caused to him and the natural development to his GI tract. You can do your own research if you want, but here are some good reads if you are curious about what I'm talking about and 'if' formula really does cause harm (plus, do you really think that something that is manufactured inside a lab by scientists is better than the God-given natural-milk that your body manufactures specifically for your offspring?):

BellyBelly.com (formula vs breastmilk)

Mayo Clinic Formula vs Breastfeeding

Infant Formula Ingredients (it's disgusting, I'll warn you that)

More infant formula ingredients (the formula I fed SB is listed on here, ew!)

If you do Formula, try this route (organic)

Also, for formula options, look here

No one can tell me otherwise; I know that giving SB formula added to his constipation-prone problems. My gut has told me this the entire time. I should've followed my gut from the very beginning. But it's okay, I'm understanding that I only did what I thought was best at the time.