Doing Amazing

Well, for once I get to give a very positive update!  Allie is doing wonderful.  After meeting with her Dietician, we switched up her formula and feeding schedule.  She is now tolerating her feeds better than ever and we are getting slightly more calories into her. 

As stated in my previous post, we have switched Allie's formula to Pediasure Peptide (predigested formula).  We are still adding Duocoal to it to add a little extra calories.  Allie now receives all of her feeding via gravity bag.  It works wonderful.  The downside is Allie's feedings now take a half hour each time but that's okay.  She's a calm little girl and doesn't mind sitting on the couch or her bed for a half hour.

Allie gets 3 feedings during the day and each feeding is 4 oz.  At night, she gets 6 oz over an hour period.  Of course she still isn't getting the full calories she needs but we are working on it. 

In addition, Allie is still eating a little bit orally.  It continues to go in spurts but we are not pushing her oral eating at all - if she doesn't want to eat, we simply give her a feeding and it's all good.  I don't care how she's getting her calories, I just make sure she gets them.

So, I'm happy to say that things are finally going a little bit smoother and Allie is starting to gain weight again.  She sees her GI doctor next week so I'm excited for her weight check.  I'm praying she is over 29 pounds and that her height has increased! 

Since Allie is getting more calories, her energy has increased and she is less crabby too.  She just seems like a happier little girl!

Chloe speeding up Allie's feeding - apparently the medical pole didn't life the gravity bag high enough. Crazy kids!

Changing things up for little Allie

Received a call this morning on Allie's stool sample.  There was no blood in her stool and there were no signs of inflammatory disease or malabsorption issues - yeah!  Her stool was perfectly normal, I guess as normal as stool can be.

We met with her Dietician in Marshfield yesterday.  It was a very successful appointment and we are changing things up for little Allie.  We are hoping to turn her into big Allie but I know that's a long shot. 

First change we are making is switching her formula to Pediasure Peptide.  This is an elemental formula which is pre-digested so her tummy won't have to work very hard to digest it.  It also has a lower fat content which helps speed up digestion.  We are hoping that with her gastroparesis, this pre-digested formula with flow through her system much faster - and eventually she will be handle to handle larger quantities at a time.  Allie used to be on an enteral formula a little over a year ago and it made no difference in her digestion, however she's older now so maybe it will help.

Second change is we are kind of going back to night feeds.  She isn't going to be using the pump, but she will be using a gravity feed bag.  We will hook her up at 10:00 at night and let 4-5 oz slowly gravity drip in for an hour.  The theory is that as some drips in, some drips out of her stomach also.  We are hoping this will allow for her to tolerate a little bit more formula.

Switching back to night feeds or even "extremely" slow feeds is taking a step backwards for us.  It will confuse her stomach because her tummy will not have the full sensation then the empty sensation.  However, at this point, it doesn't matter. What matters is getting more calories into her little body so hopefully she can gain back some muscle tone and grow - height and weight!  We have toyed with the idea of going back to night feeds with her pump,m, however with her gastroparesis, her tummy would be full by morning and that would throw our daytime feeds all off.  So, I think trying the gravity drip feeds for an hour is wonderful - I'm praying it works.

We are meeting again with her GI doctor in 2 months so hopefully she will have a good weight gain by then. 

Hope everyone is having a great 2013!!!