Connor looks like a super chubby, super well fed, cheeky, happy baby and so we thought Connor was a super chubby, super well fed, cheeky, happy baby.  That was...until we had his 4 month checkup.  Turns out that despite apparently storing acorns in his cheeks, Connor wasn’t gaining weight.  He only weighed 1 ounce more than he did at 3 months (for non-parents, that’s not normal for an infant).  We panicked (rightfully so).  What started as a routine well visit turned into an all-out planning session to get some meat on that adorable goo-ball. 

Our pediatrician suggested we only alter one or two things at once so we could know which one actually solved the problem.  We chose a slightly different path... If it would possibly help, we were ready to try it. 

Formula that costs as much as a private school per year?  sure! 

New Bottles? Yes.  Let’s buy the ones recommended and also one of every other type of bottle they sell just in case.

Buy an infant scale so we can track his weight?  Anyone who knows jake, knows this happened on amazon prime before the doctor’s appointment was even over. 

Panic?  Duh.

Drugs?  Sure.  Might be reflux?  Let’s double up the reflux meds!

Change his feeding schedule?  Fine buddy...you wanna eat at 2 am again like when you were a few weeks old.  You got it!  Just eat!

Change his feeding positions?  What about the temp of the bottle?  Yup.  Let’s try that too. 

Mixing the formula with pedialyte instead of water?  Fine – let’s get this kid addicted to sugar, we can deal with that problem later. 

Have you tried Panicking?  Yes, does that help?  No...well...let’s do it anyway. 

Solid foods?  Yes.  Let’s give it a try.  (Connor was not on board with this one)

Fortify his formula so he gets more kcals per ounce?  Yes. For sure.  How high can we raise it before it just turns into a solid and CPK rejects it again?

More Drugs?  Could be an ear infection making it hurt when he sucked on the bottle?  Sure.  Antibiotics (sorry Nicole) and why not schedule an ‘ear tubes’ surgery just in case. 

See a specialist?  Done.  How’s today work?  We will just show up and see when we can be seen.  (turns out he has severe something that sounds like Malaysia – floppy airway). 

Have you tried using a medicine syringe and feeding him 5-10 mls at a time?  Yes, it doesn’t work.

In the first few days after realizing he was underweight, we were a little stressed and it showed at home.  Isabel could tell something was up and was a little unnerved.  We wouldn’t let her near him when he was eating and everything was a little more tense than normal.  After we thought we had him eating again, Jake told Isabel in a very very relieved tone that “we had our baby back” and without really knowing what it meant, Isabel echoed him and told Connor that “we have our connor back”.  It was adorable and did wonders to lighten the mood. 

It’s now been 2 weeks and we have made progress.  I want to say we have solved the problem, but I also don’t want to jinx it.  At a minimum, Connor is eating his bottles again and his weight is trending upwards.  We have made it all the way from “below 3rd percentile”  (which is as low as it goes) up to 5th percentile!  C’mon Connor!  Keep it up! 

Our current solution is: Changed formula brands to something German and fortified the kcals per ounce using the boring old bottles and water and not warmed up.  We give him one reflux med once per day and we are still feeding him a bit of extra formula after his bed time and before ours (1030 ish).  We also have an ear tube surgery scheduled because he’s already had 3 and he’s only 4.5 months old. 

Parenting tip: Did you know that they sold a pacifier that you can inject medicine through?  We didn’t know that, but they do.  It’s made by the same people that make the Nose Frida.  Boom!  Dropping knowledge. 

Does he look like he isn’t gaining weight??