One Year Well-Baby Visit

Katen visited her pediatrician for her One Year Well-Baby Visit today.

She got her finger pricked to check lead levels and received her Hep A shot. We'll go back next month to get her MMR shot. I chose to delay the Hep B and Varicella shots for now. The reason I asked to go back later for the MMR shot is so that it's the only shot given at that time.

The MMR is a combo shot of three vaccines and I feel like that's plenty for her little immune system to fight off on it's own. Based on research I'm feeling okay about doing the MMR combo though, despite concerns raised about links to autism. A very solid study was conducted in September of 2007 by several reputable medical institutions showing no link between the MMR shot and Autism. Regardless, it's still a lot of vaccine at one time and I think Katen's glad that she didn't get 4 shots in one day. I can't imagine feeling the pain of one shot in each leg and then seeing that they're going to do it all over again once more. I know I personally wouldn't be too happy about that. We'll go back, thank you.

Here are the stats for 12 mos:

• Height: 29 inches (2', 5")
• Weight: 21lbs
• Both in the 50th percentile
• Her soft spot is nearly closed and head circumference is in the 75th percentile.
• We've finally been referred to the allergist to nail down the source of Katen's allergies
• Katen has successfully weaned off of the bottle and uses only sippy cups for drinks
• Next we'll work toward using a regular cup and will begin potty training if interest is shown
• Based on our milestone check, Katen is performing at the 18 month level.
  

She's able to do the following--

13 months milestones:
Bends over and picks up an object
Crouches
Enjoys gazing at reflection
Holds out arm/leg to help dress
Combines words and signs to to indicate needs
Rolls a ball

14 months

Eats with fingers

Empties containers
Imitates others
Walks well
Initiates games
Responds to instructionsUses utensils
Matches lids with containers
Pushes and pulls toys while walking

15 months
Walks backward and Runs
Adopts "no" as a favorite word

16 months

Turns the pages of a book
Has temper tantrums if frustrated
Is attached to a soft toy or other object
Enjoys climbing
Can stack three or more blocks
Is able to take off at least one piece of clothing
Becomes a pickier eater
Takes one nap per day

17 months
Uses six or more words regularly
Dances to music
Kicks ball

18 months
“Reads” books on his own
Strings two words together

--The things she doesn't do yet within those milestone guidelines are in the advanced category and not required to have met the month's milestone:
Points to one body part when asked (we're close – she can tell you what certain animals say though)
Scribbles with a crayon – she'd rather eat them or bang them on the paper
Sorts toys by color, shape, or size

We're pretty excited to see what she learns next.

Now that I'm staying home with Katen every day instead of working, I have more of a chance to take charge of her learning and also to experience her discoveries right along with her. I'm pretty excited about that. I know she's going to miss her toddler friends though.

Print Page

Nine Month checkup and Roseola

Here are our big girl's stats at nine months:

Height: 27 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 19lbs - 50th percentile

They also took blood to check her hemoglobin levels. This tells us how much iron is in her blood. Sometimes children become anemic if they don't have enough iron in their diet. Normal levels for children are 11 - 16 g/dl and Katen's level waws 14 which our pediatrician said is the highest she's seen is quite a while. (Yay!) It really helps that Katen loves her fruits and veggies. She's also doing pretty well with chicken and turkey now. (She used to be a sensitive to chicken.)

Those first two bottom teeth are working their way in and Katen is chewing and drooling on everything. She'll even try to teeth on the stairs. yuck. She's enjoying a little star that vibrates when she chews on it, and also a little raspberry shaped soother that looks like a binky but has bumps to soothe those gums.

Other milestones we discussed are that she's crawling, cruizing, standing with one hand and sometimes no hands, saying a few words (ma, da, cat, baba = bye bye) and waving. She's a pro at throwing her ball, and her latest development is so cute. If you ask her what the kitty says, she'll make these tiny, high pitched little sounds to mimic the cat. It's not "meow" but its more like "eek eek eek." The pediatrician says that kids often times have their own words for things like that and eek eek eek to her means meow. Either way, it's really cute.

During our appointment, I also had our pediatrician check a rash that was taking over Katen's body. On Saturday and Sunday Katen had a pretty high fever. She was hovering in the 102 - 103 degree range even while taking Tylenol every four hours. Late Saturday night I ran out to get some Infant Motrin and that started helping on Sunday night. Katen was still grumpy, having several loose poops, and not sleeping very well though. On Tuesday, I noticed some spots showing up on Katens belly and neck behind her ears. By the time I undressed her for her pediatrician appointment a few hours later, she was covered in red dots. Our pediatrician said right away that it was clearly Roseola.

Katen has to stay out of daycare until the rash is gone. Some sources say it's very contagious and others say its not. Nonetheless, mommy is home with Katen until she's spot free. I'm sure we'll find some fun stuff to do. :)

Here's another time where I sure wish Katen were still nursing. She seems to pick up every little virus despite our best efforts to keep her germ free. (Or as close as it's logical to be given she's a mobile infant who is teething.) She does get a very balanced diet though so we're doing our best!

I also brought up that Katen doesn't like to eat very many oz from her bottles at daycare and the pediatrician said that if she's a good eater, we can move to three meals per day and two snacks. She'd like to see Katen get at least 12 oz of formula though whether that's in a bottle or in a sippy cup. That shouldn't be a problem. I'm planning to try a new eggless recipe for breakfast bars very soon. That will be a handy little breakfast for her during the week. We'll see how that goes.





Print Page

6 month pediatrician appointment

Here are Katen's new stats:

16lbs, 3oz - 50th percentile
26 1/4 inches tall - 75th percentile!!! wow!
Head circumference is 17 in - 50th percentile

Lots of people say she has a big head, but she's normal. :)

The pediatrician says she's right on target for milestones - laughing, smiling, rolling, practicing crawling, sitting, eating solids, and sleeping.

She said that Katen is just not going to require a lot of sleep. She's a curious child and a go getter and probably will never require much sleep. She also believes that Katen truly is hungry every three hours at night (which I can tell also by the way she wolfs down a bottle like they're going out of style). This is happening because Katen drinks only 4oz at a time instead of the typical 8oz other kids her age are taking down. She drinks less to manage the reflux. The pediatrician also increased our Zantac dose and said to continue with Zirtec (antihistamine) as needed before bed.

Katen was a good sport when she got her DTaP shot and Rotovirus serum. On the regular schedule Katen would also get the Hep B and Polio vaccine but we've chosen to delay both until 1 year. Her next poke will be at 9 mos and it's just a finger prick to check hemoglobin. Maaaaybe we can stay out of the pediatrician's office until then. Let's hope.

After her appointment, Katen got to visit Mommy's office and then have lunch with Grandma Deb. Then it was back to daycare for a while.

Off to the pediatrician. again.

I took Katen to the Pediatrician today. We saw another one in the practice so it wasn't our regular Dr who we love. Mike and I thought Katen had an ear infection. She's been super crabby and pulling at her ears. I wanted to get her into the clinic before the weekend so she didn't have to suffer if she did indeed have an infection. She didn't. I'm just one of those crazy first time moms. The pediatrician said that the problem was just teething. (seriously? I don't see any!) What we left with were instructions to increase Katen's Zantac dose by almost double and a recommendation to get Children's Zyrtec for her eczema since it seems to be itching. The cream that we got (oh maybe two weeks ago?) helps a lot but Katen has scratched the spots open on both arms. I was also told to give her Tylenol at bedtime but I don't feel like giving her three meds at beditme is really necessary. Although if she continues to wake every two hours screeching like she has, I may reconsider. The idea isn't to torture her.

After the appointment, Katen and I ran to the store to find the zyrtec (which is newly sold over the counter and apparently back ordered due to increased demand) and then had a fun afternoon playing together.

RSV, Flu, Ear Infection all at the same time - oh my!

Poor sweet Katen. She is so sick. Daddy left town on business yesterday and shortly after, Katen started running a fever. I kept a close eye on it and tried to keep her comfortable. Unfortunately by morning it was still about 101.4 so I called for an appt with the pediatrician. Katen ended up having to endure some of the most awful testing. They pricked her heel for bloot testing, and the the worst was the RSV test. They stick a syringe full of saline up into her nose, flush it all through, and then quickly suck it all back into the syringe. The poor kid probably thought she was drowning. Her little nose was bleeding from it and she cried so hard that she was shaking and had these huge alligator tears. It really broke my heart and I rocked her and held her close during the entire hour it took to get our preliminary results back. The result - RSV and an ear infection. The Dr. says she probably picked it up when she was at the pediatrician's office for her 2 month check up. Great.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. RSV causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages. In adults, it may only produce symptoms of a common cold, such as a stuffy or runny nose, sore throat, mild headache, cough, fever, and a general feeling of being ill. But RSV infections can lead to other more serious illnesses in premature babies and kids with diseases that affect the lungs, heart, or immune system. This is the main virus we were trying our best to stay away from. We'd been so diligent about using Purell and washing our hands, but it wasn't enough.

Unfortunately since RSV is a virus there are no meds to take. We got an antibiotic for the ears and spent the rest of the day rocking in the chair sleeping off and on. Katen wimpered for most of the time she was awake. When Daddy got home from his trip he was surprised to see a sick baby. The following nights were awful. It was especially hard for Katen to breathe at night but we did our best to help her out. Many times each night we'd have to run hot water in the bathroom to create steam in order for her to catch a breath. So not fun.

The day after the RSV and ear infection diagnosis we got a follow up call to let us know that the Influenza test restults came back and she tested positive for Influenza B as well. Poor, poor Katen.