CF and Weight
People with cystic fibrosis often struggle to maintain a healthy weight, despite frequent high calorie meals. It was determined shortly after diagnosis that Wyatt is pancreas insufficient. This is a big fancy term that basically means his pancreas does not release the enzymes that are necessary for the digestion of nutrients (particularly proteins and fats). Cystic fibrosis results in the production of sticky mucous in various organs and the pancreas is a major one. The mucous prevents the enzymes from being released to do their job in digestion.
The good news is there is a medication Wyatt takes to help him digest food. They are called creon pills and the dosage is dependent on his weight. Currently Wyatt takes about 14 pills a day (usually 3 per meal and 2 per snack). The amount he takes per meal or snack is dependant on how much fat and protein content is in the food. He has been on these pills since he was three weeks old.
Even with the pills it is difficult for Wyatt to maintain a healthy weight. We feed him high fat meals every day (which can be very difficult to make healthy but we have our ways).
Wyatt is currently at the 50th percentile for weight (this is what the dietician wants him to be at or above) but it hasn’t always been that way.
When Wyatt was about one year old he had dropped below the 30th percentile for weight. This was quite concerning because he was a very large baby (nearly ten lbs) and was born at about the 90th percentile. It was a huge drop and not what they like to see. But over the next year we managed to get him back over the 50th. It’s something we have to work at every day to maintain and we know his weight can fluctuate but we are very fortunate to work closely with a dietician who helps us get Wyatt to where he needs to be.
Long post but I wanted to explain the best I could! Please feel free to share the post or ask any questions below!