18 months
June 24th, 2008
Can you believe he’s already on his way to 2 years old?!
Last Monday we went for his 18 month check up. The stats:
- Weight: 19lbs, 13 oz.
- Height 32 inches
- Head circumference = 45.5cm.
Never going to hit 20lb consistently. Taking a look at the growth chart, you might notice he’s waaay down below the lowest weight line. That line is for the 5th percentile.
Of course, him being preemie didn’t help, but by now he should have made some progress on catching up on weight gain (by 2 years old caught up). Unfortunately (or fortunately, I can’t really tell anymore) he prefers low-calorie foods over high calorie foods. If given the choice between a blueberry and some ice cream, he’ll take the blueberry without question. This isn’t helping at all. That combined with childhood sicknesses (Hand, foot, and mouth 2 weeks ago, and apparently Roseola this weekend) he isn’t exactly packing on the pounds. The pediatrician ran some tests (blood counts, liver enzymes, electrolytes, thyroid, and celiac disease test). All came out totally fine. Going to check for malabsorption (I won’t tell you the fun details of that), but I’m sure it will be fine. The last remote thing to check for would be cystic fibrosis, which would be unlikely since he has no other symptoms really.
So we continue, trying to maximize the calories with our finicky, fruit-eating, ice-cream shunning, toddler who runs around like crazy burning off every last calorie that enters his lightweight body.
After the doctor’s visit, blood draw, and shots.
15 months old
March 17th, 2008
Today Avery had his 15 month old checkup. He’s still scraping the bottom percentiles on size. Doing great on milestones:walking, spoon/fork holding, words.
The stats:
- weight: 18lbs 6 oz
- height 30.5 inches
- head circumference 45 cm
Words (not all completely clear yet):
- Hello
- Bye
- Uh-oh
- Duck
- Bath
- Mama
- Dada
- Baba
- That
12-month check-up
December 19th, 2007
Monday we took Ave in to the doctor for his 12 month check up.
The stats:
- 16lb 8.5oz
- 28.75 inches
- 44cm head circumference
- crawling, cruising, bending and squating to pick things up
- bangs anything together
- says “uh oh” and “dada”, no “mama”.. just whines for me
We discussed his lack of gaining much weight, since he only gained ~1.5lbs in the last 3 months. The weight issue is exacerbated by his unending energy and newfound mobility. In general, he should have been starting to catch up on weight some by now, not just continually hug the bottom percentiles for his adjusted age of ~10months. They checked his iron levels in case of anemia (perfect). Also checked lead levels, just in case (no results yet). Suggested trying to get him to drink pediasure (30cal/oz vs. cows milk @17cal/oz), especially since hes coming to an age when kids often dip in weight because they’re too distractable to eat. Amazingly enough, he’s still breastfeeding, thought more for comfort than calories. We’ve also been referred to a nutritionist to find the most efficient ways to get high calories in low volumes into him. I’ve got to call the insurance to sort out the nutritionist and setup an appointment. Developmentally, he’s right on track. He just may be a small guy for a while.
Stats
September 22nd, 2007
We went to our 9 month check up last monday. He’s a long and lean baby.
- 15lbs
- 28inches (time to start looking for a new carseat..)
- 44 cm head circumference
He’s not crawling yet, but he moves around by a combo of rolling, spinning on his belly, and occasionally pushing off with one leg. He’s doing the pincer grasp (though it’s not perfected yet) to pick up food. He’s quite a babbler. He spent one whole trip to the store blowing raspberries constantly. He likes to play the “lets push the toy on the floor and whine until someone picks it up, then repeat” game. He looks for stuff that falls on the floor.
He is, however, small. He’s above average for height, right at average for head circumference, but not even close to on the chart for weight. The fact that he’s constantly moving (and burning calories) doesn’t help. The doctor isn’t worried, because he’s steadily gaining weight, he’s just not making up any weight, and he started at the bottom of the charts for gestational age to begin with. Given that I was a very skinny baby and kid, it may just be that he has my metabolism. Weight gain slows down after 6 months anyway (since they’re more mobile). We’re just supposed to get lots of fats into his diet whenever possible. Needless to say, the fact that he LOVES yogurt is working in our favor.
