I thought I might post in here about what is going on for us right now with the hope someone may have expeirenced what is going on with Felix ATM, also since my posts seem to being getting quite epic about this issue in my home forum of 6-12 months babies..

Okay for a background for those who don't know us and the situation. Felix has been failing to gain weight "properly" for about 3 months. He is 7.3 kgs despite being 69 cms and has only gained around 300 grams in over 3 months. This has been monitored by MCHC and recently due to the fact his ribs are now visable they have refered him to a paedrictian. The other issue that is going on is he has a rather extreme way of breathing. I have mistakingly thought that all babies breathe the way Felix does, although I did ask friend's about the way their babies breathe, but because there are no respitiory issues(he seems to breathe okay) and he gets colds the same as every other baby, never had a serious cough etc I never worried.

The Paedrictian I have been refered was concerened about his breathing style (whole chest goes in very deep in centre, like he's labouring, but he's not IYKWIM) and on friday I was sent for a CTG, blood tests, chest xray, and then he was re-examined. the Paed explained he was checking his heart and lungs. He looked at chest exam which is for the lungs, said they looked okay, then looked at CTG and did pulses and blood pressure, and blood tests came back okay.

..another paed was called in, and she examined him, then they told me that everything didn't add up, they were concerned it was his heart and rang a cardiologist who said it didn't sound like a heart problem, but a heart scan was mentioned as a possiblity for this week. I was told there is extra noise in his chest and they don't know what is causing it. I was asked to come back today to have him re examined, because he had a cold and he thought that could be causing it.

This morning he is re-examined, the Paed tells me the noise is still there, and he is thinking that is it is more likely to be a chest issue. He tells me basically he isn't sure what is going on but that the way he breathes is a concern. He said normally you have to look carefully to see whether a baby is breathing their breathes are so light. He says we are going to order more tests, and if they are inconclusive then in the new year he'll refer me to a Paed specialising in chest problems. He told me that he was going to order a Cystic fibrosis sweat test because symtoms for CF are weight loss and respirtory probs, although it was unlikely that this was the cause, because his heel ***** was negative. He also ordered more blood tests and wee and poo tests..

Felix was AMAZING during all these tests, today he actually laughed whikle having his blood taken from his finger and the sweat test isn't painful at all..best thing is he gets these cute knitted toys from the blood testing centre today they were just so impressed with the laughter that he got a huge knitted donkey..at least he isn't in any pain..trying to do the wee test this afternoon was more painful for me!!

Anyhow I will ring him tomorrow to see if results are back, then we are back to the hospital to see him in 2 weeks, and to discuss the next move.

I have been told to put him onto 5 meals a day of high calorie foods to help to regain weight, and he thinks that with the way he breathes that it could be affecting the energy he burns IYKWIM?

I am strangely not stressing, as there is nothing concrete yet, I just wonder whether after all this they will say it is just him and send us home...

Just wondering if anyone has heard of this kind of thing in their baby or someone elses?