the littlest carscadden: September 2013

We met with the GI doctor in the middle of August. The doctor was really nice, sweet and encouraging. He was funny too. Here is a sample of the visit note from that day (note what he wrote under social history):

He's mildly concerned there might be an underlying problem that's causing the poor weight gain. To assess this concern Miles will have an endoscopy, where they put a camera down his GI system all the way to his small intestine and have a look around. They'll also take some small samples from his intestine, stomach, and esophagus to send to pathology to rule out food allergies and celiac disease. I was hoping to have an update on that procedure by now but Miles got sick a couple weeks ago with a GI bug (see my last post) and we had to postpone the endoscopy to allow his GI tract to heal.

As for that GI bug, Miles lost some weight that week. But he has rallied this last week and there has been a huge uptick in his food consumption. It used to be that he would barely eat a breakfast sausage in the morning. (We choose sausage because it's really, really calorie dense). For the last week, he's eaten two whole sausages each morning plus additional calories from other sources. Our goal for him is around 1000 calories daily. This morning, by 9:45am, he'd already had 540 calories! I really, truly hope this pattern is a new normal and he's not just making up for calories lost when he was sick.

Seeing Miles eat normally brings not just a sense of calm to my troubled mind but also true joy. I feel so happy and grateful when he's eating well. And he needs it. He had his normal 16 month checkup this past Friday and he's not only in the 2nd percentile for weight but he's dropped to that percentile in height too! For a sense of what a big loss this is, when he was born he was in the 88th percentile and he's dropped consistently but had been hanging around the 15th percentile as of last visit. Despite the fact that everyone says he looks and acts normally, and I agree that he does, you can't really argue that it's normal to drop from the 88th percentile to the 2nd percentile in height. The only saving grace here is that his head circumference hangs strong in the 50th percentile. His brain still continues to develop normally.

And it shows. He is smart, clever, and funny. He's really determined as well, which comes out by way of the tantrums he's been having recently. Without the language to express what he wants combined with some limitation of physical abilities, as well as an unrivaled will and determination, we have witnessed an emerging emotional turmoil that we were not quite ready for. I'm talking about a kid, screaming at the top of his lungs, as I carry him four blocks through a street festival. Why? Oh, because he wants to walk, and touch every rock along the way, and stumble into people and get in some dogs' faces. That would all be okay if we weren't with a bunch of other people and trying to get to a stage to see a band play. He also has started screaming and crying when we try to put him in the shopping cart. He has a budding independence that won't be quelled. He wants to walk. He wants to explore. He wants to touch. He doesn't want to sit in the seat and be an idle observer.

These personality traits will serve him well later in life. And I'm glad that I don't have a complacent and boring baby. I'm also very thankful that Lucas can (and wants to) stay home with him so he gets the kind of attention he needs.

We're a happy little family with a great support system. I couldn't ask for much more right now. Except that Miles' new pattern of eating become his normal pattern of eating.