Lactose Intolerant?

Samuel's appointment at ACH yesterday went very well.  He weighed in at 15lbs 5oz!  I was hoping to hit 16lbs by Christmas....and we are only a half pound off.  I'll count it as a victory!

I had been speaking with the nutritionist, a speech therapist, and Samuel's medical home nurse for the last month trying to figure out what to do about the whole eating issue (see previous posts.)  Once they learned that he was doing better, they seemed to be relieved.  It sounded like there isn't a lot they can do.  (Or at least a lot that they WILL do.)  They scheduled an upper GI, but it won't be until April.  Thank goodness he isn't having immediate problems....I can't imagine waiting 4 months if he still wasn't eating.

Everyone seemed to be VERY pleased with how he is doing.  His muscles look good (no high or low tone....a great sign that he will not have cerebral palsy - a condition that affects a significant number of micro preemies.)  His weight gain was excellent despite the eating issues.  He has gained 27 grams a day (nearly an ounce) since he was at ACH last time.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but apparently he is gaining weight too quickly now!  The nutritionist was considering lowering the calories in his formula until Dr. Lyle saw Samuel....

The doctor was concerned that Samuel is still having to have a dose of Miralax every other day for constipation.  He also has a lot of gas - and is colicky from about 5:30pm until he goes to bed.  Constant crying.  Since I am slightly lactose intolerant, and my dad had to have soy formula as a baby, there is a chance that Samuel may be lactose intolerant too.  We are now on a trial run of a lactose-free formula to see how he does.  Samuel doesn't care much for the change though...and getting him to eat the new formula is going to take some time.  I'm going to have to slowly mix it into the formula he is used to.  The really good thing about the new formula is that it is a 30 calorie formula!!!  Normal formula is 20 calories - Enfacare is 22 calories.  I'm excited about it because I don't have to feed him so many ounces a day.  I can STRONGLY encourage him to sleep the whole night without feeling guilty!  YAY!

I'm still thinking that part of his problem is the thickener that we are putting into his bottles.  It seems logical that what goes in thickened must come out thickened (sorry to be graphic.)

He has not grown much in length - 24.5 inches long still.  They think that he is just going to be short (for genetic reasons not reasons related to prematurity.)  I'm going to keep praying that he will have a growth spurt.  God's done bigger things right?

I got a call from the state saying that Samuel's therapy company (which evaluated him a few months ago) has now closed.  Hopefully that means that when I pick a new company, they will reevaluate him for speech, occupational, and physical therapies.  I'm going to need some help getting him caught up to his chronological age developmentally.  I'm still not sure why they would expect a baby born 4 months early to be developmentally on level with a full term baby born at the same time.  However, if that's what everyone is expecting from him, then we might as well start working toward that goal.

Here is a picture from our ACH visit.  Carolyn and Cydne weren't working, but we did get to see Dr. Arrington, Lori Lee (my favorite nurse practitioner), and several other sweet nurses.  I love checking back in with these wonderful people who most certainly helped save Samuel....