Doctor Visits

I took the 3 youngest kids to the pediatrician on Thursday.  I asked for a weight check for Rose. She is 5 months and my milk supply has been a problem for the previous 5 kids. I only made it 3+ months with Daniel.

So she's doing fine!  She's about 12 and a half pounds, which puts her in the 5th percentile of weight for babies her age, but she's staying on her curve.  She started little and staying little.  She's such a happy little person.  We're so thankful for her.

Daniel and Sarah are also doing well.  Daniel looks huge to me because he is so much bigger than Rose, but actually he is exactly average in terms of his weight.  He is fairly tall for his age, too. Sarah is also tall and thin.  Most of our kids are.

I asked the pediatrician about Daniel's way of running. He has a way of running that looked to me like one leg is hurting him. He staggers sometimes.  He obligingly ran up and down a corridor at the doctor's office, and the pediatrician laughingly said he is fine -- he just hasn't decided whether he wants to gallop, run, or skip so he sometimes combines all three with humorous results.

On Friday morning, I took the 3 youngest to our eye doctor.  Sarah and Daniel are both in glasses because they are farsighted.  Sarah in particular has very bad eyes.  She has an astigmatism and her eyes cross without her glasses.  Both children are maintaining their prescriptions and everything looks fine.

We first were alerted to eye problems a couple of years ago when it turned out Isaac had amblyopia.  Sarah is at risk of amblyopia and I'm thankful for a great doctor who is monitoring her carefully.

The doctor took 5 seconds to look at Rose.  She'll do a thorough check in 6 months but for now, she said her eyes don't look horribly farsighted.  We'll be pleased if she doesn't need glasses as the previous 3 kids are farsighted. But if she is...well, we're adept at dealing with littles on glasses.

Many people have asked me how a tiny one can be checked for vision problems.  Apparently one way is that the doctor can actually measure the curvature of the baby's eye using an instrument. She also has some flash cards and all babies will glance at one specific card if their eyes are Ok.  I don't know all the details.

Now that we've been through this, I recommend all parents of babies have their little one's eyes checked when they are still very young.  Here in Ohio, that check is free through a state program.