Baby Put on Diet
May 6, 2009 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under Baby Care, Health, Infancy, Mommy Extras, News & Media, Nutrition, Parenting
I can’t even believe I just typed those words, but it seems a baby that is to skinny is now being put on a diet of 2000 calories. Why? Well, the baby was to thin. Apparently she was born prematurely and is still severely underweight, so much that it concerns not only her family but the doctors. They want this precious little girl to catch up to what others her age would weigh.
IMG: Sxc.hu
The little girl only weight a little less than 17 pounds and is 16 month old, that’s a pound per month she’s been alive almost. This little baby has been through it all too, in just a few short months she had:
a brain hemorrhage, chronic lung disease, an open heart duct, life-threatening high blood pressure and an immature gut, which meant she was unable to digest milk.
She was allowed to go home with her parents at 3-and-a-half months but was still suffering from reflux, where stomach contents come back into the esophagus or mouth and make babies stop breathing.
Doesn’t that just make you sad and want to find her and give her one giant hug? I bet it does. Either way this girl is a survivor and while most kids would love to hear they get to eat the following this is actually the prescribed diet from the doctor:
special diet, eating foods like yogurt, roast duck and pork, pesto, vegetables cooked in olive oil, chocolate and milky desserts.
What do you think?
A high fat high cal diet will most likely not work for her if her reflux isn’t completely under control. The high cal/fat diet will actually make her reflux worse, and cause her to have more of a delay in emptying the contents from her stomach. More food/cals/fat = more reflux, and in turn more weight loss, or lack of weight gain.
Lot’s of babies with GERD are advised to go on a diet like this, but it’s usually not successful at all. If her underlying problem (GERD or possibly something causing her GERD and/or her other medical problems) aren’t properly treated, she will continue to to be bellow the charts and not grow properly, regardless what her diet consists of.