After class we had lunch at Finale - always a favorite - with some of our friends from baby class and then headed to Henry's 9 month "well visit" pediatrician appointment.
Henry is doing very well still in terms of his weight/height. He is still a big boy - 21 pounds and 12 ounces and 30.5 inches tall. He is still steady at 97% for height and 75% for weight - he is consistent!
His overall health looked good - ears, belly, etc. His runny nose is still clear and he has no chest congestion, so his cold is either minor, just beginning, or due to teething (and therefore not really a cold). The pediatrician had lots of fun watching Henry crawling all about, trying to climb in her lap, destroying the roll of paper covering the exam table, etc.
There are a few concerns though.
First, I brought up my worry about his left eye. You may have noticed in the pictures we send out that his left eyelid seems to be drooping a bit, and seems to be getting a little worse as time goes on. Here is a picture that is a good example:
The main issue with this is if the drooping gets bad enough to interfere with his field of vision. Since vision development is so critical right now, things that interfere with his vision could potentially cause permanent vision damage. Actually, for this particular issue it would cause the SAME problem I have with my left eye (although mine is caused by Amblyopia -lazy eye -that was not detected early enough to correct). We all know I have TERRIBLE vision, lack of depth perception, etc. Because of this I tend to be a little hypersensitive about things relating to Henry's vision. He was with me at my regular eye doctor appointment yesterday and my eye doctor agreed with me that he should be looked at. I brought some pictures demonstrating the droop to the pedi today and she also agreed, so now we are getting an appointment with a pediatric opthamoligist at Children's Hospital of Boston.
There is a good chance that it will turn out to be nothing - just a minor droop that will not get worse and is no big deal. A worst case scenario is minor surgery to tuck the eyelid back up. At this point the droop is not interfering with his field of vision, so unless there is something else going on he shouldn't have any vision problems from it at this point. I feel MUCH better that he is getting a full vision check up, though.
Another issue: the pedi is a touch concerned about possible food allergies. I knew this might be an issue - I had childhood asthma and both Mike and I have seasonal allergies (all of which can be related to food allergies). Now that he has been on table food of all sorts for a while, we can start seeing problems if they exist. He had a rash/hives last week that I am fairly sure was due to soy (a common allergy). More concerning to the pedi were his "poop" issues - she basically diagnosed him with chronic diarrhea. Poor kid! So, for the next two weeks I am supposed to basically cut out wheat and soy from his diet and hold off on high fiber foods and any fruit except bananas and apples to see if that makes a difference. In addition, we need to take stool samples for 3 days for them to check and see if bacteria or something else is causing these problems (say it with me - FUN!). If bacteria is ruled out, our next step may be a pediatric allergist.
The 3rd and final issue of the day: The pedi showed VERY VERY SLIGHT concern with some of his communication skills. Henry is always very "engaged" in terms of smiles, eye contact, and general vocalizing(although babbling was late for him). The concern (again, slight) is due to things like lack of gestures. Henry does not look towards objects you point to, does not point himself, does not raise his arms to indicate he would like to be picked up (although he does climb right up into your lap himself), and does not mimic facial expressions or sounds. I knew that he was a little behind on these things so I was not surprised today. The pedi had me fill out a questionnaire about what he is/is not doing at this point, and then we will take it from there. It may turn out to be nothing, it may turn out to be something - we shall see.
The end of his appointment was not fun. We had to go down to the lab for his lead level test, which consists of a blood draw (not a prick, a full draw with the tourniquet around his little arm and everything). At this point, Henry was done. He hadn't taken a nap since 10 AM (it was 3 at this point) and was just pooped. Normally they need two lab techs to deal with baby blood draws - one to "restrain" the baby and one to do the actual blood work. Just our luck, there was only one tech in the office. We decided to try it anyway with me acting as "restrainer". Henry thought the whole thing was very fun - he liked the tourniquet and the nurse tapping his inner elbow to find the vein. Then, the needle went in. OH LORD. He was so upset, I can't even describe it. It took basically all of my strength to restrain the poor thing. After about 5 minutes of agony, the nurse tells me that she "wasn't able to get it" and that we would have to come back another day and try again. Ugh.
So, all in all not a really fun appointment.
Luckily, Henry fell fast asleep in the stroller and took a 30 minute nap on our way home. He was back to his sunny, energetic self when we got home. He was also very nice to me - I was wiped out (again) from being sick, and he happily played by himself, crawling all over the house while I lay on the couch. :) Here is a picture of him playing and showing off the band-aid from his failed blood draw.
We will keep you updated on the follow-ups that will be coming!
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