Doctor Updates

(Dude...this is long.)

Wow.  I was looking back through my old blog posts and realized I never posted an update to our specialist appointments we had at the beginning of December.  I must've been a bit burnt out from NaBloPoMo (or whatever the abbreviation is!).

Since her 15 month appointment, we've now visited three specialists and the pediatrician three times (at least?). 

Specialist #1, The Cardiologist:  On December 1st we had an appointment at a center run by the local Children's Hospital because of the heart murmur that has persisted.  Our pediatrician told us he was really sure it wasn't anything, but thought we should get it checked out.  Good news is that he was right.  The cardiologist told us that it's not problematic and that we shouldn't even mention it on medical history forms.  We left that meeting feeling really great!

Specialist #2, The Endocrinologist: The same day we went to the cardiologist (in the same building), we visited an endocrinologist, who was supposed to look at her development.  He asked us a lot of questions and looked over Baby Girl and determined that there wasn't any reason for concern unless we started noticing more signs of her approaching puberty (pubic hair, armpit hair, etc.).  We still haven't and, in fact, her baby boobies seem to be more in proportion than they were.  Great doctor visit again!

Pediatrician visits: Ear infection after ear infection.  Enough said.

Eighteen Month Pediatrician Visit:  Still planning a whole post on her development, but should give the important stats.  Weight: 23 lbs 4 oz. (30th percentile) Height: 31 inches (35th percentile)  Head circumference: 75th percentile (although we're done with head measurement now)  She got some vaccinations and handled them really well, as usual.  She'll get one or two more at her 2 year appointment (2 year??!??!?!!??!!) and then that will be it until she starts kindergarten (again...kindergarten???!??!??!?!!?!).  The doctor was impressed by her development but did think we should talk to a specialist about our suspicion of a milk allergy.  He told us "Before we'll through, we'll have you at every specialist in town".  Let's hope that isn't true.  He figured it wasn't a big issue, but thought we should get her tested.

Specialist #3, The Allergist: This morning The Hubby and I took Baby Girl to see our allergist (I started going to him years ago, then he went and visited him not long before Baby Girl was born), who was also the person that our pediatrician was recommending to us.  We got there at 9:00, checked in, then were taken for Baby Girl to be weighed.  She was a little freaked about standing on the scale and cried some, but was fine by the time I took her off.  We went back to the room where we found....TOYS!  They weren't great quality (much to the dismay of The Hubby, the Etch-a-Sketch was broken), but Baby Girl was excited to play with them all.  We gave some background to the doctor's assistant, then to the doctor himself.  The assistant asked us to get her disrobed (or nakey, as Baby Girl calls it) from the waist up, then came back and had us lay Baby Girl across my lap.  Begin tears (from Baby Girl...not me.  This time.).  She didn't even know what was coming, but still started crying.  The assistant then left to allow the reactions to happen.

We were looking at her back during the 15 minute wait and saw 2 pretty large spots that were reacting and then one much smaller and another that was BARELY red. We assumed one of the big spots was milk. When the doctor came back he said one of the big spots was a control and the other was eggs. The smaller spot below the egg one was milk and then the very smallest was peanuts. She didn't react to tomatoes, cod, soy, chocolate, and some others. The doctor mentioned that the reason she doesn't seem to like eggs (the only way we've gotten her to eat them is by covering them in ketchup) might be because of the allergy but said that as long as we don't notice a reaction from things made with eggs, we can continue to cook with them and proceed as we are--just don't try to force her into eating just eggs anymore.


As for the milk, he said we could keep giving her milk and milk products as we are now and give her cow's milk when we're ready as long as her reaction doesn't worsen. He says it isn't doing any harm to keep giving her milk.

He also said that there isn't any connection between allergies and breastfeeding. Bummer!  Sort of glad no one told me that in the first few months of nursing.

Lastly, he said we should delay introducing nuts until she's 3 because she has other food allergies.  Not a huge deal, I suppose (although I love peanut butter and that makes me a teeny bit sad that she can't have any until then!).

We'll go back in a year to get her retested.

Whew.  And that's it.  For now.