My doctor rant
First, I want to say that there were many reasons that we did not want to leave Colorado. One of them was because we loved our doctors there. I could not have asked for a better pediatrician than all the doctors at Dublin Primary Care! Anyway, when we went to Sydney's 6 month check-up, we noticed that she was starting to slip off the weight percentile chart.(height is and always has been 25-50%) At her 9 month appt., she was down to under the 5th percentile. At every appt. her doctor reassured us that she is perfectly healthy.
And then we moved to Texas. When we went to her 1 year exam, her doctor had what my grandmother would call a "hissy fit"! She very accusingly told us that our daughter was "alarmingly underweight". She could not believe that her previous pediatrician had "ignored" this fact. We then had to begin monthly weight checks. (we did those in Colorado, but her doctor there said that as long as she gained SOME weight, he was happy.) Over the next 2 months Sydney continued to gain a few ounces each month, but that wasn't good enough. Next thing we knew, they had taken 3 vials of Sydney's blood and we had appointments to see a speech therapist (to check her chewing and swallowing), a nutritionist (to see what we were doing wrong), and we were supposed to take her to the hospital to have a sweat test to check for Cystic Fibrosis(even though in her 20 months of life, she has only been sick twice). Every place that we took her to, (including the er when we thought she had broken her wrist) took one look at her and told us, "There is no way this child is sick." Finally, it was time for her 18 month exam. We both went ready for a fight. We both had all of our research and arguments ready. I think her doctor sensed this and finally backed down a little with "I guess she is just going to be small." I want to add here that Sydney is very small. She only weighs 19 lbs., but 3 of her couisins were the same weight at her age. We also have found that she has a milk allergy and cannot tolerate any dairy foods. After 6 agonizing months of "Is something wrong with my baby???" (and $700.00 worth of dr bills that our insurance won't cover), we can finally just say we have an extremely picky eater (like both her mom and dad) and she will just be a small child. There are worse things in life.
And then we moved to Texas. When we went to her 1 year exam, her doctor had what my grandmother would call a "hissy fit"! She very accusingly told us that our daughter was "alarmingly underweight". She could not believe that her previous pediatrician had "ignored" this fact. We then had to begin monthly weight checks. (we did those in Colorado, but her doctor there said that as long as she gained SOME weight, he was happy.) Over the next 2 months Sydney continued to gain a few ounces each month, but that wasn't good enough. Next thing we knew, they had taken 3 vials of Sydney's blood and we had appointments to see a speech therapist (to check her chewing and swallowing), a nutritionist (to see what we were doing wrong), and we were supposed to take her to the hospital to have a sweat test to check for Cystic Fibrosis(even though in her 20 months of life, she has only been sick twice). Every place that we took her to, (including the er when we thought she had broken her wrist) took one look at her and told us, "There is no way this child is sick." Finally, it was time for her 18 month exam. We both went ready for a fight. We both had all of our research and arguments ready. I think her doctor sensed this and finally backed down a little with "I guess she is just going to be small." I want to add here that Sydney is very small. She only weighs 19 lbs., but 3 of her couisins were the same weight at her age. We also have found that she has a milk allergy and cannot tolerate any dairy foods. After 6 agonizing months of "Is something wrong with my baby???" (and $700.00 worth of dr bills that our insurance won't cover), we can finally just say we have an extremely picky eater (like both her mom and dad) and she will just be a small child. There are worse things in life.
posted by Nicole at 4/09/2007
7 Comments:
my niece, kathryn, just broke 20 pounds at 20 months.
http://vanoverstories.blogspot.com
and my neighbors daughter is 5 days older than ky and might weigh 23 pounds.
don't worry about it. as long as she follows HER curve, she's healthy
Several of my nieces are/were in the same weight range as Sydney. I'm not really worried about it anymore... It was just so nerve-wracking to have her pediatrician breathing down our necks and threatening to hospitalize her everytime we went to her office. Hopefully, that is over now.
We went through the same thing with Kathryn's doctors. After months of "come back again next week so I can charge you a co-pay just to set her on the scale and tell you she doesn't weigh enough"--as if we couldn't tell--"and then we'll need you to take her an endocrinologist for blood work and x-rays to check for an obscure metabolic disorder that might be preventing her from thriving" I finally had a better idea: get a doctor who's not an idiot. Turns out the problem was just that she wasn't getting enough calories to gain the kind of weight her previous doctor expected.
To date, Kathryn is (almost) 21 months and 21 lbs. She's around 20% for height and less than 3% for weight. And she's perfectly healthy and completely happy. See eats all day long and then dances all the calories away. Of course, no pants fit her properly, but I'm okay with that.
Thank you! It is really comforting to hear from people who have been through it also. We are working on finding another pediatrician right now. Sydney and Kathryn sound so similar. She will be 21 months old May 11. We finally have her up to 19 lbs. She also eats like a bird and then runs around the house like a crazy person. The dairy allergy was a blow to us because her favorite foods were anything with cheese. I understand your problem with the pants. As far as length goes, she is in 18 month clothes. However, 18 month pants fall down around her ankles as she runs down the hall. Oh well.
some advice for both of you...
okay i may not have a small child, but she is on the skinny side, too... (90% height, 25% weight) and i can tell you that the only pants that have ever stayed up are old navy bootcut (now with adjustable waistband which i don't like so much but you can cinch them tight enough) and gymboree.
thank god the girl loves dresses.
Any time. I'm always happy to share incompetent doctor tales. Kathryn will be 21 mos tomorrow, so she and Sydney are almost exactly the same age.
There's only one small difference I've noticed...Kathryn eats everything in sight, all day long.
What are some of Kathryn's favorite snacks? Sydney is so picky, I'm always looking for new things to try. Oh, and you can email me anytime: nicmorris1488@hotmail.com
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