FAILURE TO THRIVE

“Failure to thrive” is when your child’s weight percentile falls to the 3^rd percentile or below or when it crosses 2 or more major percentile curves.  When either of these (or both, as in the case of my older son) happens, it’s an indication that the child is not growing as he or she should be.

I could scream every time someone tells me that I’m not that big or my husband’s not that big, so my sons’ failure to thrive is something I shouldn’t worry about.  Or how about when I’m told to stop comparing my kids to fat American kids?  I’m NOT comparing my boys to other kids.  I’m comparing them to THEMSELVES.  That’s the point of a growth percentile curve.  A child is born at a certain height and weight, which puts them on a growth-percentile curve, and they should track that curve.  Otherwise, what’s the point of having these curves?

For example, my older son was born at the 50^th percentile for weight and the 75^th percentile for height.  But with all of his projectile vomiting, especially after beginning solid foods at 5 months, he had slipped to the 25^th percentile for weight by the time he was 6 months old.  His pediatricians didn’t seem too concerned, but I was.

Something Was Wrong

I was concerned because I was the one who tried to feed him Cheerios and yogurt.  He would eat 10 Cheerios and 2 spoonfuls of yogurt at a good meal, which would’ve taken me an hour to feed him.  I sang and danced and practically stood on my head to get him to eat, but he wouldn’t have much of it.

I even made a spreadsheet to show how very little calories he was eating, but the pediatricians still didn’t seem concerned.  In their mind, I was just a first-time, NYC mom – what did I know?

But a mom knows when something’s not right.  It shouldn’t take this long to feed a child.  And a child shouldn’t continue to projectile vomit.

One of the pediatricians did send us to a pediatric allergist to look at possible food allergies, but all of the skin-prick tests came back negative.  Not a word was mentioned about food intolerances or sensitivities.

We moved to the suburbs when my older son was almost a year old.  Again, the new pediatrician didn’t seem concerned about his weight or vomiting.  “It’s a weak gag reflex; he’ll grow out of it”, was what I was told, despite the fact that it was continuing to take an hour to eat a meal and my son threw up almost every meal.

He Lost Weight At 18 Months Old

This went on until my son was 18 months old.  That is far too old for him to have been before the doctor became concerned.  By this point, my son STILL wasn’t walking, he was STILL throwing up almost every meal, and his weight had dropped to the 3^rd percentile and his height to the 30^th percentile.

Finally, this next pediatrician was concerned.  He prescribed 2 bottles of Pediasure a day and said to take him to McDonald’s to fatten him up on junk food.  What?  This was just so wrong, but I did it anyway.  Do you know what?  My son would barely touch the junk food, although he did pound the Pediasure.

By his 2^nd birthday, his weight and height bounced back to the 20^th and 75^th percentiles, respectively, but my son continued to throw up after every meal.  It wasn’t until he was 2-1/2 that the brilliant pediatrician decided that he wasn’t growing out of his “weak gag reflex” and put him on Prevacid, which worked instantly.

He also prescribed Periactin, an anti-histamine that has the side effect of increasing hunger; it’s often given to anorexic teenage girls.  My son’s weight continued to hold at the 25^th percentile, but his height slid from the 75^th to the 25^th percentile.

Not a Thinking Mom Yet

In those days, I listened to and did what pediatricians told me to do.  I wasn’t a thinking mom yet.  Just as the doctor ordered, I gave my kids junk food and junk drinks to help them grow and gave them pharmaceuticals to cover up their symptoms.  All of that changed after I began seeing a naturopath for myself and discovered how unhealthy these things were.

Removal of Dairy Helps Asthma, Hinders Weight Gain

It was after my older son had a severe asthma attack (with a nebulizer and everything) when he was 4 years old that I took him to my naturopath for the first time.

He immediately took my son off dairy (I was buying 7 or 8 six-packs of Pediasure a week in those days because, by this time, both my sons had growth and developmental issues; they were also both on Prevacid for their acid reflux), and, voila, his acid reflux cleared almost immediately.

With the removal of dairy and the other changes that the naturopath recommended, my son has never had another asthma attack in the 3 years since.

I’ve written before that it was at this time that I became a thinking mom.  I started to realize the damage that these junk foods, drinks and pharmaceuticals were doing.

The junk foods and drinks were creating food sensitivities, hypoglycemia and nutritional deficiencies, while the pharmaceuticals were covering up the problems created by the junk foods and drinks.

Do you see how this is just a microcosm of the twisted state that our big ag and big pharma companies have gotten us into?  This vicious cycle is not normal, although we’re led to believe that it is, and it’s certainly not health-creating.

There’s a great saying by Wendell Berry that is very appropriate:  “People are fed by the Food Industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the Health Industry, which pays no attention to food.”

Removal of dairy helped alleviate my sons’ acid reflux and asthma, but milk is a growth food, and my older son’s weight percentile began to decline without it.

By the time he had been through kindergarten and off of dairy for 2 years, his weight percentile dropped down to the 8^th percentile.

It seemed almost as if I would have to choose between giving him dairy, which helped him grow but led to acid reflux and asthma, and not giving him dairy, which cleared his acid reflux and asthma but didn’t help him grow.  I chose to continue not to give him dairy.

He could die from an asthma attack, and giving him dairy just to have him grow better wasn’t worth it.

I put him on the GAPS diet at the beginning of 2012 to clear his worsening eczema.  His eczema did clear up, but his weight only ticked up a few percentile points to the 12^th percentile in the 6 months he was on it.

“Crane Man” Failure to Thrive, Too

My younger son, who loves to be called “Crane Man” (because he likes crane trucks), was also born at the 50^th percentiles for height and weight.  He stayed on these curves until he was well over 3 years old.

By the time he had been most of the way through his first year of preschool, though, his weight had declined to the 30^th percentile and his height to the 41^st by his 4^th birthday.  He was gluten-free/dairy-free for a whole year and a half before his weight percentile declined, so lack of dairy didn’t seem to be the reason for his growth decline as it was for my older son.

By the time his 5^th birthday rolled around, Crane Man had almost finished his 2^nd year of preschool, and his weight and height had again decreased, this time to the 22^nd and 14^th percentiles, respectively.

He had been on the GAPS diet for 3 months at this point, and I really can’t say whether or not this way of eating contributed to his weight decline because I wasn’t in the habit yet of recording his weight and height percentiles in between his annual checkups.