Question about Down Syndrome babies

Barbara - posted on 02/25/2010

I have an 8 year old son with DS. He nursed for 2 years but in the beginning, we supplemented formula until we saw he was gaing weight well. I can say he certainly has no problems now LOL. He is a picky eater eating no meat but chicken nuggets but I supplement with things like ovaltine in his soy milk for some extra vitamins and he does eat eggs and peanut butter for protein.

Megan - posted on 02/25/2010

yes it certainly is!! when they are little babies they have more of that problem. as they get older it turns into the problem of always wanting to eat and not wanting to stop! haha my son had that same problem actually. he's 2 now but sometimes he still doesn't want to eat much but he's a very picky toddler! only eats certain things. good luck! don't worry too much about it though. she'll eat and grow faster than you know!.my son doesn't have any health problems related to downs either so i'm very lucky!! : ) have tons of fun!! they r very loveable at times and enjoy her no matter what!

Kim - posted on 02/25/2010

thank you, marcia. she is seeing a speech therapist--me. that is one service that i have totally covered for her between myself and my friends that are also speech therapists. joy is not having difficulty in that area...she has a very good suck-swallow. i have come to the conclusion, based on things i have tried, that she just wasn't nursing for long enough to get the hind milk.

Marcia - posted on 02/24/2010

sometimes they have a problem with sucking because of the muscle tone. You can do exercises with the tongue by sticking your finger in her mouth and pushing down on the tongue. See a speech therapist.

Gina - posted on 02/24/2010

Hey Kim, my daughter has Mosaic DS. She was born at a normal weight (6 lb 7, i think) but around 3 months I noticed her legs were like sticks rather than having meaty-baby thighs. I bottled fed and she had a hard time keeping formula inside her mouth...she'd drip it out as she drank. By 5 months, those, I noticed her thighs were nice, plumb triangles. Now at 7, she is a skinny thing, but I make sure she eats a lot of fruit, veggies, calcium and protein. She's just super active, and prefers activity to eating, so it might just be her natural physique.

Shannon - posted on 02/24/2010

NOT @ all good ? though

Kim - posted on 02/22/2010

sarah, was your son breastfed or bottlefed? did he sleep for long stretches @ night early? i'll probably never know, but i'm curious if her difficulty gaining weight was because she was not nursing long enough to get hind milk or if it was because she sleeps for such long stretches at night (6-7 hours).

Kathy - posted on 02/22/2010

That's good news about your daughter's weight gain, Kim!

Sarah - posted on 02/22/2010

Yeah we had a really hard time at first getting him to gain weight. He is now 18 months and weighs 24 pounds.

Kim - posted on 02/22/2010

Thank you for your response, Kathy. We went to the doc today and she is now 8 pounds...which is a gain of about 13 oz. Hopefully we can keep this up and she will gain some more before her 2 month check up in 2 weeks.

I just wasn't sure if it was related to the DS because these kids are typically smaller than other kids.

Kathy - posted on 02/21/2010

I think that it's hard to say whether or not your daughter's difficulty gaing weight is related to her diagnosis of Downs Syndrome. I've read that some children with Downs Syndrome have eating issues but you say that your daughter nurses well. My son never had a problem gaing weight until he became a toddler and then he became a finicky eater. But is it because he has Downs Syndrome or is he just a picky eater?