Up until that appointment we had been noticing that Phoebe's pants, she was wearing a size 7 late last spring and over the summer, were starting to get a little loose around her waist. We knew that she was losing weight, but ever since birth she has had that pattern. She would gain weight in slowly for six months, then she would lose a couple of pounds over the course of six months. But her weight loss was never close to what she had gained and it never made her clothes not fit her.
The scale that day reflected what we were noticing. Since the end of August (so a total of 6 weeks) three pounds. While that might not seem like a lot of weight to loose, for Phoebe gaining weight has always been such a slow process, those three pounds were almost all of the weight she had gained since March.
Because this lined up with a pattern she has had since birth, the pediatrician did not think there was enough reason to be overly concerned. Phoebe's eating habits are excellent, she is in school 5 days a week, and there is a lot more she is doing in school than she has been used to. So we decided to wait it out, thinking she would start to gain the weight back.
As we waited, Phoebe's pants started falling off of her even more than they were in October. So last week I bought her size 6 pants. One size smaller than she was wearing. She wasn't feeling well and has been fighting off a cold for the past week. So even though she had new pants we hoped would fit, nightgowns have been her clothing of choice. Until today when she finally put the new pants on.
And I fell apart.
She has lost even more weight. Her new size 6 pants are too big and falling off of her too....She has lost even more weight.
After a call into the pediatrician, we have a new plan in place, at least for the next few days.
Phoebe is to eat 7 meals a day (which is not far from what she has been doing these past few months). Her meals need to contain more fatty foods and more protein (her favorite meals she has multiple times a day were suggestions they gave us to feed her). We are to keep a food journal of everything she eats and drinks. And most importantly, we are to monitor her output.
There is the possibility we will need to IV her, but they need a detailed idea of intake and output before they can determine what type of IV would benefit her the best.