 | Before we knew Jack had Menkes, we never understood why he couldn't latch on to breastfeeding. Only in retrospect did we realize that the sucking action was increasing the pressure in his brain and causing him to seize. Anyway, while we had hoped Jack would breastfeed for at least the first year, it didn't really happen. (Note: if you haven't figured it out already, we're really a "go natural" first kind of family. No, we don't walk around naked, we don't walk around in hemp and flannel clothing, nor are we freaks living in a compound. We just believe that--for our family--it's a healthy choice.) After breastfeeding, we then made our own formula using natural ingredients until Jack was about 9 months old. | ||||
| However, Jack's appetite started declining. When Jack was six months old, he was drinking 40 to 48 ounces each day, so even though his formula was light on calories, he made up for it in quantity. At about 8 months, though, his intake declined and he wasn't getting enough calories to support his weight. So, we switched over to Nestle Good Start. Then, his appetite declined even more and we started super-concentrating his formula. | ||||
| Normally, breast milk and formula are about 20 calories per ounce of water (by using one scoop of formula added to two ounces of water). | ||||
| Then, we started using three scoops of formula to five ounces of water which brought his caloric intake up to 24 calories per ounce of water. | ||||
| Then, we needed to keep Jack more regular, so his afternoon and evening bottles (the ones without GlycoLax; see Constipation) included two ounces of pear juice. (NOTE: Pear juice and certain types of GlycoLax do NOT mix.) So, his caloric intake was up again. | ||||
| Currently, Jack's bottles look like this:
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| Our doctor told us that any higher concentration of formula would be too difficult for his stomach to digest, so we're stopping there. But, since Jack's not gaining any more weight, we don't really want to pull back. |
NOTE: We are not health care professionals and consider the above comments to be personal reflections on choices we made/make. We accept NO liability for your choices. Talk to your own doctors before making a change to your son's treatments or care.
