Check up

Today Kelsie had a followup with her CF doctor and things are continuing to look great. She weighed 13 lbs 3 oz and was 23 inches long!  Her weight has been climbing up and up on the growth curve so she is now 75th percentile while her length is 25th. Her weight for length is 90th percentile!! What a chubby baby!! No malabsorption evident in this girl! Thanks to those enzymes! Apparently they are really doing the trick! I feel we have finally perfected the method and she is really doing well getting them down! The doctor said that some babies with CF have to supplement with higher calorie formula in addition to the enzymes, but thankfully, Kelsie is getting all she needs to grow from my breast milk.  The doctor was very pleased with how well things seem to be going. Kelsie still hasn't gotten sick (thank God), she is growing, and we are consistently giving her meds, vitamins, salt, and chest PT as we should.  We did discuss her salt intake which is currently 1/8 tsp once a day in a bottle of breastmilk but they advised us to give extra if she has a day where she sweats alot. As I mentioned before, one of the issues with CF is that the salt balance in the body is messed up so dehydration occurs more easily. We give Kelsie salt to prevent her from becoming dehydrated. Since she is too young to tell us if she is feeling thirsty or craving something salty (signs that she may be getting dehydrated or need more salt), we have to make sure we are helping replace her salt daily. 

At our next visit in one month, they will check Kelsie's baseline pulmonary function through a procedure they do under moderate sedation. This basically gives an objective picture of how well Kelsie's lungs are doing now, while she is healthy. Then when she gets sick, they can recheck it and compare her lung function at that time to what it was while she was healthy. That information will in turn help them know how bad the illness is affecting her lungs and help guide treatment.

Here is a video of how we give enzymes!

 (She usually doesnt even cry this much while taking them but she was a little extra hungry.)