I’ve been meaning to post pictures from Opies birthday party last week. We have so many people to thank and praises to share about our wonderful friends. I keep trying to set aside time but then it doesn’t happen. Then I meant to do a birthday post for him turning two a few days ago. The day of his birth and the weeks that followed were crazy and I wanted to document how far he’s come and how lucky we are to have such a sweet and funny kid, buuuut again, it hasn’t happened. Things have just been really busy with dr appointments and I haven’t found the time. So instead of those fun posts, I’m going to do a quick update on what’s going on with his health.
He is 32 inches tall and just over 21 lbs, or as I say, he’s a shrimp. Getting him to eat is still an uphill battle. We are meeting with a dietician every few weeks right now to try everything we can to fatten him up. He is also seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist up at UNC. We saw him yesterday and he seemed a little concerned about a few things so he took blood to do lots of tests. He’s testing for some possible deficiencies, blood cell counts and a few other things. We should start getting results back in a week. It was a good appointment but also frustrating for me personally. I thought I was really prepared and brought blood test results, op reports and letters from his previous dr, the insurance company etc.. What I didn’t prepare for was needing to remember dates and details on the spot. When I’m stressed I tend to freeze up, so in my mental fumbling trying remember dates and times, I gave some incorrect answers. I later called them back to give then the correct answers, but it was still annoying and a little embarrassing. The Dr will either understand because lots of moms do that (right?) or think I’m an idiot. Oh well to either option I guess. We will be seeing him again in 6 months, or sooner if test results indicate we need to.
Today we had an appointment with his regular pediatrician. Opie just loves him. He is wanting to get those lab results back and hear about how our next appointment goes with the nutrition clinic next week. It is possible that there is something else going on that is making it hard for his body to gain weight or that he just can’t get a big enough appetite. If he starts eating lots and still doesn’t gain or grow, we will do more testing. If we just can’t get him to eat more with behavioral training with the dietician and by seeing a food therapist, there may be an option to give him a medication that has a side effect of increasing his appetite. Both of those are future possibilities but hopefully won’t be necessary.
He is also going to be monitoring his feet/ankles/gait for the next couple years. He said they’re just a little “funny” right now, but to not worry about it. It could just be he got his daddy’s flat feet hehe. If not, we will catch any issue quickly. I honestly think he got Michael’s feet so I’m not going to give it another thought.
He’s happy about how well he has done since cutting out gluten, dairy, strawberries and soy. He said we may still find things here and there to remove from his diet but that things are definitely going well and I agree. Something else I appreciate about this Dr is that he doesn’t hesitate to just run blood tests vs going to an allergist for skin tests. I mean I could take Opie to the allergist, but 1 poke by a needle for blood is better than 20 to find out he isn’t allergic to something. The things that can be tested through blood is more limited, but at this point we don’t need thorough allergy testing.
Something I’ve been wrestling with is his speech. Opie understands what we are saying and talks back to us. It just isn’t English he is speaking. His ‘real-word’ vocabulary is small and he isn’t using multi-word combos. I have been saying that I’m just going to give him time and let him go at his own pace, and his Dr has agreed. However today while we discussed it, he recommended getting an evaluation by speech therapy done and doing some sessions to speed things up if they think it would help. I feel like once he gets the hang of using real words, it won’t be long before he is where he is supposed to be verbally. He’s a smart boy, too smart sometimes. He just might have had a few setbacks because of how rough my pregnancy was and being born before he was good and ripe;)
We will get that appointment made for sometime soon. Then we will see his pediatrician for a follow up and continue to see his dietician probably every few weeks or monthly. She has brought up the possibility of food therapy if his not eating seems to be a true food aversion vs. Behavioral issues, so we will see. I’m not going to push that at all, but if it is recommended for him, I will explore that possibility at that point.
To try and correct some behavioral problems with food we have had to get really strict with meals and snacks. They are scheduled and timed and are at the table. His snacks have been limited and are also timed and scheduled. His drinks are after meals and he doesn’t get 10 choices for lunch or dinner anymore. He gets to eat what we eat or not at all. It’s been harder on me by the way than it has been on him. We are also using distraction techniques and both positive and negative reinforcement. Overall I’ve noticed he is eating better at meal times, but he isn’t real consistent yet. It’s only been two weeks though, so hopefully with more time we will continue to have more progress! I’m also going to be looking into kid friendly, gluten free multi vitamins to help get him nutrients he is missing out on. If you have any recommendations, please share. He is also taking iron drops daily.
So, all this to say we have had lots of appointments and probably will continue to for the rest of this year. We are praying and would appreciate your prayers that:
– he will start eating. Bigger quantities and more often.
-when he does eat, it won’t make him sick and will stick to his ribs;)
-for positive news with his test results
-for his speech to pick up
-for patience and wisdom for myself as his mom, that I can do what he needs
-for wisdom and understanding for his Doctors
If all those prayers were answered, we would only see Drs or other medical professionals for bi-annual checkups!
We have been lucky to have a wonderful pediatrician and gastro specialist. They have been overly cautious and they do extra tests “just to make sure”. I couldn’t be more grateful for that! Our calander is pretty full, but I’m making sure we get good time with friends too. Whether it be time at the trail, library, park or in a friends living room.. I want him to have plenty of fun too! We are also doing Pwoc and mops on Tuesdays and a bible study on post on Thursdays. He seems to enjoy being busy so that’s good! He cries whenever he realizes we are at the dr or when he gets weighed and measured, usually anticipating being poked and prodded. My hope is that he will lose that fear ASAP. Here are a few pictures from our appointments. One of them, and you’ll know it when you see it, is a picture of some of the pictures he took. I didn’t know he was sneaking taking pictures of his dr and I lol. The rest are just him being goofy!
This next one is from today on the way home. He was crying for more blankies. He likes to rub them on his face when he’s tired. He already had four in his lap.. I’m not sure how many more he needed lol.
Tomorrow I have a dr appointment, then we are getting ready to hit the road to visit South Carolina!
AGlutenFreeMama 