“Square face, big belly – you’ve got a good Dutch baby here!” That’s the words of our Dutch pediatrician, anyway.
Charlie is between 25-50th percentile for 4 monthers – and that’s not adjusted! For his adjusted age he’s way off the charts (in a good way). He’s 14 lbs, 1 oz. He is also 24 inches long! We were told to go ahead and start rice cereal mixed with formula; if he takes that well, we can move on to veggies and fruits in 2 weeks. She said we should mix ¼ cup cereal with 8 oz formula, and try to give by spoon. Heh. So that’ll be fun. If he doesn’t take by spoon, we should give it with our fingers at first. Double-heh.
He also got 4 shots and one oral vaccination. Poor baby. Good thing he won’t remember it. Roman was very concerned for Charlie, and even said “I feel sorry for Charlie for getting those shots.” He rarely shows empathy, so I was impressed. Another concern has arisen – “increased tone” in his legs. So we’ve been referred to Early On, which is a taxpayer-funded program in Michigan for little ones. They will send a physical therapist through the schools out to our house for an evaluation. Basically, his legs are stiff and difficult to manipulate; his knee reflexes are much more than what they should be. Hopefully they’ll just give us some exercises to do rather than have to see a PT on a regular basis.
Charlie also has developed a flat spot on the right side of his head; funny, because on his back he looks to the right, and on his tummy he looks to the left. But we have to start forcing the head to the other side. Over the next 2 months we should start seeing him grabbing for things, rolling, and commando-crawling. It is physical things where we will see the preemie-delay most readily, she said.
So we’re going to start fun with cereal this evening and see what happens. Exciting! And I have a lot of phone calls to make, because I also have to make an appt. at a pediatric retinal specialist (different than the other one we saw) for a one-time visit.
Charlie is between 25-50th percentile for 4 monthers – and that’s not adjusted! For his adjusted age he’s way off the charts (in a good way). He’s 14 lbs, 1 oz. He is also 24 inches long! We were told to go ahead and start rice cereal mixed with formula; if he takes that well, we can move on to veggies and fruits in 2 weeks. She said we should mix ¼ cup cereal with 8 oz formula, and try to give by spoon. Heh. So that’ll be fun. If he doesn’t take by spoon, we should give it with our fingers at first. Double-heh.
He also got 4 shots and one oral vaccination. Poor baby. Good thing he won’t remember it. Roman was very concerned for Charlie, and even said “I feel sorry for Charlie for getting those shots.” He rarely shows empathy, so I was impressed. Another concern has arisen – “increased tone” in his legs. So we’ve been referred to Early On, which is a taxpayer-funded program in Michigan for little ones. They will send a physical therapist through the schools out to our house for an evaluation. Basically, his legs are stiff and difficult to manipulate; his knee reflexes are much more than what they should be. Hopefully they’ll just give us some exercises to do rather than have to see a PT on a regular basis.
Charlie also has developed a flat spot on the right side of his head; funny, because on his back he looks to the right, and on his tummy he looks to the left. But we have to start forcing the head to the other side. Over the next 2 months we should start seeing him grabbing for things, rolling, and commando-crawling. It is physical things where we will see the preemie-delay most readily, she said.
So we’re going to start fun with cereal this evening and see what happens. Exciting! And I have a lot of phone calls to make, because I also have to make an appt. at a pediatric retinal specialist (different than the other one we saw) for a one-time visit.
Comments