Not gaining enough weight

Ruby has been having trouble gaining weight since she turned a year old.Right now at 14 months she weighs 15 lbs 5 oz. which is in the 25th percentile on the Ds charts.Her pediatrician has been keeping an eye on her weight and I knew that Ruby has been eating o.k. and taking plenty of bottles, so I wasn't too concerned.
That is until I took Ruby to have her heart checked and they decided to compare her weight on a typical children's chart,telling me she was in the 5th percentile, and sent in a dietitian to talk to me about what I feed her.I started feeling a little panicky and then the dietitian called me at home the next day to tell me how to increase the calories in Ruby's formula.She was very nice and only trying to be helpful but when we got off the phone I called my husband and had a good cry.I have always made sure to give Ruby plenty of bottles and I put either rice cereal or oatmeal in each of her bottles.She takes about 8 bottles or more a day and until just the last couple of weeks has taken two or three jars of baby food a day.Now she has decided that she doesn't want the baby food.
I have decided to try the Nutrivene D formula and see if that will help Ruby.I gave literature and the website info to Ruby's doctor and she called me and said she thought that these vitamins would be good for Ruby and saw nothing wrong in my giving them to her.So I ordered the Nutrivene and we started that this week.I'm also adding olive oil to her bottles as the dietitian suggested which is helping to add calories and has also greatly helped Ruby's constipation.
I found this website feeding-underweight-children.com and it said that,"Many children with Down syndrome are underweight when they are young. " This made me feel somewhat better.I plan to start trying to give Ruby food with a little more texture and seasoning to see if that will help her to want to eat more.I found out tonight that she loves to suck on Sour Punch Straws:)Maybe she just needs a little more taste in her food to encourage her to eat. I have read several places that children with Down syndrome like spicy food.

This is a great post by Beth at Hannah's Shenanigans about Targeted Nutritional Intervention.

Thyroid problems in people with Down syndrome

Hypothyroidism happens when the thyroid gland slows down or stops producing thyroid hormone.

13 to 54 percent of children and adults with Down syndrome have hypothyroidism.Hypothyroidism can be a serious problem if left untreated so it is important that children with Down syndrome be tested at birth and then yearly .Some symptoms are low energy level,slowed mental and physical development,thickening of the skin,sleepiness, and constipation.

Click here for an article I found on hypothyroidism in children with Down syndrome.

Heart Defects in Children with Down syndrome

About 40 to 50 percent of children with Down syndrome are born with a heart defect.The most common defects are Atrioventricular Septal Defect and Ventricular Septal Defect.Survival beyond one year of age is 85 percent in all children with Down syndrome who have a congenital heart defect. Over 50 percent of individuals with Down syndrome live to be greater than 50 years old.