Failure to Thrive... Signs Unnoticed

Once upon a time I had a baby and she was doing great. Growing. Nursing. Pooping. Ya know, all the normal baby activities. Around 8 weeks she was sleeping 12 hours at night. Life was settling back to normal, whatever normal with four kids is. I am writing this through the lens of hindsight. I wish I had chronicled everything as it was happening but for a while I didn’t know anything was happening and then I was too busy, stressed, did I say busy?– to deal with it. Our first red flag was her sleeping. Somewhere around four to five months she started waking up at night to eat. Although none of our other kids did this, we chalked it up to a growth spurt. We figured she would eat a little more and get back to her regular 12 hours after a little bit. Our second red flag was her skin. Again, around that five month mark her cheeks started showing some red, dry patches. It was winter, windy and unseasonable cold for Texas. So honestly, I thought it was more weather related than health related at this point.

By five months people started asking us questions. Why is she so small? My response: her sister was really small too. She’ll catch up. What is wrong with her cheeks? Oh, she has eczema. I am sure it will clear up soon. Every.single.person. We had an appointment coming up a month later, so I figured I could ask about her cheeks then. Nothing else seemed that alarming at this point. The closer we got to the appointment the more signs her health was off began to surface. Her cheeks went from slightly red and patchy to bright red, crusty, and then also oozy in places. It was not glorious to say the least. Her weight stayed the same. She was five months but wearing newborn to 0-3 month size. And then the clingy phase began. She has always been sweet and happy, but she started to only want me to hold her. If I held her she was calm, but with anyone else she cried.

If you have other children you know that when one kid gets sick, you tend to pass the germ to the whole.entire.family. So when the baby had some congestion and a little cough a few days before this first pediatrician’s appointment, I thought it was just her turn at bat. In hindsight these were all clues to her health issues. But spread out over several months, none of them seemed to indicate anything was wrong. Until the doctor visit. But I cannot beat myself up for what I simply did not know. I was doing all I could to take care of my baby. You just move forward.