The mother of twin boys battling a rare form of cancer says her boys have been taken off their high-calorie supplements and are losing weight.
Laken and Theo Snowling were diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia after their birth in September last year.
Recent blood tests have shown the cancer was going away without chemotherapy treatment. The twins had genetic testing done to see whether the boys have a syndrome that had caused the cancer.
The twins' mother, Stephanie Archer, said the boys' high-calorie supplement had been stopped by doctors because they do not meet criteria.
Both Theo and Laken have lost weight continually since being taken off the supplement, Ms Archer said in a Facebook post on the page she has used to chronicle the twins' journey.
"So two weeks ago the boys had their high calorie supplement stopped abruptly (not my choice, apparently the boys don't meet the 'funding criteria' anymore), and I was to replace the 3x100ml feeds per day with supermarket formula.
"Since then they have continued to lose weight."
She had been breastfeeding and offered bottles and solids to the boys, but it was not helping, she said.
Theo is 5.42kg and Laken is 5.37kg.
A dietician would assess the boys next week, Ms Archer said.
In June, Laken underwent a five-and-a-half-hour surgery at Starship Hospital in Auckland where surgeons patched up a large hole in his heart that was more than 2cm long.
- By NZME News Service and Rotorua Daily Post
