David was born at 38 weeks gestation with intrauterine growth restriction. Weighing only 2.4 pounds and measuring slightly longer than 12 inches long, he was immediately taken to the level III neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He would spend the next 80 days and nights working on gaining weight and stability. Diagnosed with Russel Silver Syndrome, David has a complicated diagnosis with symptoms including leg length discrepancy, hypospadias, poor/lack of appetite, gut dysmotility, reflux, and delay gastric emptying.David’s parents share their story:
Since David came home, we are making continuous changes to our lives, this is 24 hours 
non-stop living. Also, medical follow ups are so frequent that we are asking the Texas Medical Center for a monthly parking pass. We are pleased that David is being taken care of by all his physicians because we are seeing improvement and development from each appointment to the next one. If we have to review our learning process since the pregnancy, which included visits, ultrasounds, and labs, every new appointment was more stressful than the previous. The last week before the C-Section was so intense—doctors did not want to tell us an estimated weight, but of course we are expecting low weight birth. We prayed for over a kilo to have biggest chance to succeed. Now, 18 months later, we cannot complain at all. David is beyond expectations, starting to eat tiny bites…but it is a start!
non-stop living. Also, medical follow ups are so frequent that we are asking the Texas Medical Center for a monthly parking pass. We are pleased that David is being taken care of by all his physicians because we are seeing improvement and development from each appointment to the next one. If we have to review our learning process since the pregnancy, which included visits, ultrasounds, and labs, every new appointment was more stressful than the previous. The last week before the C-Section was so intense—doctors did not want to tell us an estimated weight, but of course we are expecting low weight birth. We prayed for over a kilo to have biggest chance to succeed. Now, 18 months later, we cannot complain at all. David is beyond expectations, starting to eat tiny bites…but it is a start!We must tell the story and where we are now: after mommy ran out of breast milk our GI Doctor told us to start feeding with a baby formula (Neocate) and only 3 days after using it we changed again to another baby formula (Elecare). However, both made reactions on David. The GI Doctor suggested doing the paperwork to use donor breast milk from a milk bank. Here is when we started to receive weekly supplies of donor breast milk from Mother’s Milk Bank of Austin. By that time, David was only 3 months old and the donor milk suits perfectly for an infant. The exp
lanation from David’s RSS specialist and Pediatrician is simple “There is no question that it was the best nutrition for him at one time, ie. when he was an infant.” Why? “It was good because breast milk makes small curds and leaves the stomach easily.” This was important to David because of his delayed gastric emptying. We suspected David is cow’s milk allergic, so it was a great alternative to cow’s milk based formulas when he was younger. The doctors said it may have also helped his immunity and prevented him from getting viruses brought home from school by his older sister. The Doctor's said, “We can tell you that we are sure that donor milk was perfect for David during his infant stage." It helped him to grow and make his developmental skills easier with all his therapies and medical appointments. Now he is ready to move on to start a new stage of non cow milk formula and discontinue the donor milk this spring season.
lanation from David’s RSS specialist and Pediatrician is simple “There is no question that it was the best nutrition for him at one time, ie. when he was an infant.” Why? “It was good because breast milk makes small curds and leaves the stomach easily.” This was important to David because of his delayed gastric emptying. We suspected David is cow’s milk allergic, so it was a great alternative to cow’s milk based formulas when he was younger. The doctors said it may have also helped his immunity and prevented him from getting viruses brought home from school by his older sister. The Doctor's said, “We can tell you that we are sure that donor milk was perfect for David during his infant stage." It helped him to grow and make his developmental skills easier with all his therapies and medical appointments. Now he is ready to move on to start a new stage of non cow milk formula and discontinue the donor milk this spring season.We would like to thank the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Austin because David always was (and still is for the few coming weeks) a special top priority case. Even when we scheduled medical visits out of Texas (except NY) they ship to our hotel without hesitation. Moreover, MMBA ships every week and a half, as per our request, in order to have David’s supplies 
without any delay. We are truly pleased and will always remember our Monday email to MMBA with David’s weekly request of Rx donor breast milk. MMBA will be part of David’s life book. Even now that he is almost finished with his donor milk feedings, we will continue to support MMBA with sponsorship and spreading the word to encourage more people to sustain MMBA. Please don’t stop what you are doing, you are doing great!!!!
without any delay. We are truly pleased and will always remember our Monday email to MMBA with David’s weekly request of Rx donor breast milk. MMBA will be part of David’s life book. Even now that he is almost finished with his donor milk feedings, we will continue to support MMBA with sponsorship and spreading the word to encourage more people to sustain MMBA. Please don’t stop what you are doing, you are doing great!!!!By Clara and Mauricio Gross
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