Weight gain

By admin, on March 9th, 2011%

Hi all.

My daughter is now 2 1/2 (will be 3 in November). She has always struggled with weight gain: was born with IUGR (28 weeks/ 830 grams), then went through feeding intolerance for a while and has just never been excited by food (or feeding as a babe). She has been on a “calorie boosting” diet since she started solids but nothing seems to really work. She is now 20 lbs and has been since March. She is getting taller but just not gaining weight (and getting skinnier and skinnier)

It is very frustrating as we have tried everything we can think of with no success. Currently she drinks homogenized milk with whipping cream mixed in. We have tried pediasure. And all the standard “add oil/ cream etc” rules.

Any thoughts? I’ve been reading about Duocal but it is sooo expensive. I’ve also just read about a product called nestle resource breeze which I am wondering about since she is currently enamoured with juice (which figures since she isn’t really supposed to have it!). But of course I have no idea where to actually get anything other than pediasure in Canada anyway.

 

Hints, suggestions etc. welcome!

 

Cheryl

 

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School-Age Preemie – Hold Back or Not?

By admin, on May 31st, 2010%

Hi. My daughter Daphne was born @ 27 weeks is now 7 years old. Through-out pre-school and into SK she had received continual support via speech/language and OT.  Her first year of school was SK and when we moved to a new area the school felt that Grade 1 was the place for her, despite the lengthy list of delays. Here we are approaching the end of Grade 1, with a fairly radical modified programme in place she has been assessed at a pre-Grade 1 level.  I’m not surprised by this but when I tabled the thought that perhaps it would be best for Daphne to repeat Grade 1 the idea was squashed. The school wants to promote her to Grade 2 with what I would expect would be an even more severely modified education plan in place. If anyone has had any experience or input with this sort of situation, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. I obviously want to do what is best for her but knowing that she will still likely need resource support throughout her education irregardless of potentially holding her back. The issue for the school is that they feel it is too early to tell whether they are looking at a delay or a learning disability. I’d rather not be faced with holding her back at Grade 3 where socially it would be more impactful to Daphne.  Thanks, Nicole

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Preemie Babies More Sensitive to Pain

By admin, on May 17th, 2010%

Premature Babies More Sensitive to Pain: Study

Premature babies would benefit from better pain relief while in intensive care, report researchers who say invasive hospital procedures make preemies pain-sensitive.

Injections, blood tests, tube feeding and other treatments make preterm babies feel pain more acutely than healthy newborns, says a team from University College London, BBC News reported.

“Our study shows that being born prematurely and undergoing intensive care affects pain processing in the infant brain,” said Dr. Rebeccah Slater, lead researcher. “Our ability to measure brain responses to painful events will lead to a better and more informed approach to the administration of analgesia, and enable us to define optimal ways of providing pain relief in this vulnerable population.”

For the study, the newborns’ brain activity was measured with an electroencephalogram (EEG) while they underwent routine heel pricking to obtain blood samples.

The brain activity of preemies hospitalized for 40 days or more was stronger than that of healthy babies of the same age. This indicates that the premature babies are bothered more by pain, the researchers said.

However, the babies are not more sensitive to touch and can benefit from being held or cuddled, the authors said, according to BBC News.

The findings are published in the journal NeuroImage.

http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/news-518418-98.html

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School….

By admin, on March 1st, 2010%

Hi everyone.

My daughter was a 28 weeker with IUGR, born in November 2007 and due in February 2008. At the moment, we are trying to determine what to do about school: yes it is still a while away but if we were to send her to junior kindergarten at the right time, we would be signing her up next year at this time. She is still VERY small for her age (under 20 lbs at 27 months) and is also lagging a bit in a few areas (speech, possibly some fine motor) although she is starting to progress quickly.

I remember someone mentioning to me shortly after she was born that they thought we could send her later, not just joining grade one with the 2007 class (which is an option for any child, preemie or otherwise), but actually a year later so that she would be with her 2008 peers instead of her 2007 peers. Of course, I can’t remember anything about it now, and maybe that person didn’t actually know.

So, what is the deal, anyone know?

Thanks,

Cheryl

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