Karston and Cale went to the pediatrician this morning. Their regular doctor is on vacation, so we saw another doctor they've seen. She's very thorough. Cale was fussy (tired), and wanted to nurse, so Karston went first.
Fully dressed with shoes, Karston weighs 26 pounds and is 34 inches tall. (He didn't like getting measured one bit.) His weight is below the 5th percentile while his height is well below the 5th percentile. We discussed his cradle cap (it's not uncommon, not alarming). Amy knows a little girl who was also very small, a light eater, and a fitful sleeper until her celiac was diagnosed. Since that also describes Karston, I wanted to check him for it. Karston had his blood drawn to check his endocrine levels as well as to check for celiac. Daddy held him during the blood draw, and Karston was very brave. He watched four tubes fill with his blood at his elbow, and he didn't flinch at all. Then he got his vaccination shot in his leg. When the nurses were done, Karston said, Ouch! Ouch! Somebody poked me! He didn't enjoy it, but as always, he was a little trooper about it.
Next up, Cale had to wake up for his examination. He didn't enjoy that, but he tolerated it well enough. Cale weighs 15 pounds 9.6 ounces (I was sure he would hit 16 pounds, or more, to meet the rule of thumb to double the birth weight at four months, but he's close) and is 26 inches tall with a head circumference of 16.75 inches. When Karston was nine months old, he was only a little larger than Cale is now, at a mere four months old. Cale is 60th percentile for weight, between 75th and 80th percentile for length, and 50th percentile for head. I described Cale's sad fussy days to the pediatrician, and most of it rolled right off of her until I got to what I thought was an odd but unimportant factoid, that he often has dark green poop, but the standard yellow poop only happens on good days. Green doesn't necessarily mean a bad day, but yellow does mean a good day. Since he's exclusively breastfed (one attempt at formula so far, to which he made icky face and cried until I got there to rescue him), that's apparently surprising. The doctor suggested allergic colitis, and to eliminate dairy from my diet. Milk is the most common cause of infant colitis (followed by soy), and since I'm lactose intolerant, dairy seems a very likely culprit. I don't mind cutting out milk and ice cream so much, but I will miss cheese and yogurt. Although Cale is quite interested in our food, she said not to introduce anything new until we get a handle on the colitis. I think Cale wants rice cereal! But he can wait, at least as long as my supply can keep up with his demand. Cale also got his vaccinations, also not happy about it but he bounced right back.
All told, this visit was longer than any two previous visits combined, but we covered a lot of ground with a very thorough pediatrician.
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