(no subject)

[rivka]

Alex had her four-month pediatrician visit today - a bit early, because it turns out that with all the school and sports physicals people need, you need to call 8-10 weeks in advance for a well-child visit in August. The scheduler searched and searched and finally found us a little corner of the Saturday morning schedule. Whew.

She had a rougher time with the vaccines today. Just like last time, she screamed herself purple while she was actually getting the shots and then quieted immediately once I picked her up afterward. But in the late afternoon and evening she got fussy and whiny in the way that, for her, always means actual discomfort. The areas around the puncture marks are pink and sore-looking. Poor little girl. We dosed her up with Infant Tylenol, but it was still a difficult evening - more so than last time. I hope that she's able to sleep well tonight.

She's a very healthy little girl. At 13 pounds, 13 ounces, her weight continues to be above average. I'd been a bit worried, because it seemed to me that the amount of formula she's taking had plateaued over a month or more, and because our early weight-gain struggles were so grim. But her doctor told me that we just don't need to worry about either weight gain or food intake anymore. He doesn't want me to think that I have to keep track. What a relief. Alex also continues to be a long baby - at 25.5 inches, she's above the 80th percentile and creeping towards the 90th! In half an inch's time, we'll need a convertible carseat to replace her infant seat. I'm still mystified as to how two short people could have such a tall baby.

We raised the question of starting solid foods, not because Alex seems ready - she doesn't - but because I was curious about whether "wait until six months" is still the recommendation even if a baby isn't breastfed. (Alex still gets a little pumped milk, but my production is pretty meager at this point. And it seemed to me that there was a possibility that artificial food = artificial food, and that there might therefore be no benefit to delaying solids in favor of formula.) Her pediatrician turns out to be very conservative about solid food, especially given our family history of allergies. He gave us the go-ahead to try a little rice cereal sometime after five months, but didn't even want to discuss other solids until her six-month appointment. It does sound like he's going to want to limit her to fruits, vegetables, and rice cereal until she's at least nine or ten months old, so there go my parents' gleeful plans to offer her pumpkin pie and ice cream at Christmas.

In other news, we're cleared to start using sunscreen. He's not concerned about our forthcoming trip to high altitiudes. Because both of us had a lazy eye as children, he wants Alex to see a pediatric opthalmologist at one year. That's also when he'll test her blood lead level, but he doesn't think we need to worry. We can start experimenting with taking her off Zantac whenever it seems right to us.

Yay for a healthy baby.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yay! As for her length, I recall that your dad is a pretty tall guy and Misha's birthmother's a tall woman too.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Yay for a healthy baby. And I'm on a hunt for the Britax Popsicle Roundabout car seat - my Cate, who's a week or so younger than Alex, is also outgrowing her "bucket" style car seat. My middle child, Jon, was out of his by five months, and is now in the 95th percentile, height-wise, but my oldest, Harry, was out of his at six and a half months, and is now in the 30th percentile, so it's not necessarily a harbinger of serious height, although it can be.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Er. Popcorn. Not popsicle.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Eh, you know, the names they give these things... I could believe in a Britax Popsicle. :-)

[geekymary.livejournal.com]

Hear hear to the Britax Roundabout.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

zorinth's doctor had the opposite view on allergies, that lots of bits of everything from the introduction of solids on was the way to go, and the longer you leave it the worse any reaction was likely to be. I'd understand caution about specific triggers of yours -- I wouldn't have given Z peppers, and I wasn't very pleased when my parents-in-law did it without asking, though fortunately he was OK. I expect the circumstances are different, but this startled me because it really is the opposite of what I was told.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I've done a fair amount of reading, and this does seem to be the standard current advice for trying to prevent food allergies. On the other hand, there's been recent research showing that early exposure to dirt, farm animals, and pets results in a lower risk of allergies and asthma later in childhood. I'm not sure why prevention of environmental allergies seems to be so different from prevention of food allergies.

Food Allergies

[(Anonymous)]

This made me wonder also. If the info on the La Leche League site is correct, even later food allergies can be caused by responses of an immature GI tract and the GI tract apparently continues to change significantly until about 6 months of age.

Grandma S.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Yes, yay!

[windsea.livejournal.com]

A healthy baby is a Very Good Thing :-)

You might want to try, with the next set of vaccinations, giving her infant tylenol about an hour *before* she gets the shots. This helped both Colin and Kate -- seemed to damp it down from the outset.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I might try that. But both times she's gotten shots, she's been fine for several hours afterward. The reaction doesn't seem to kick in until about eight hours after vaccination.

Of course, knowing that, I could cleverly give her infant Tylenol six hours after vaccination, next time. There's a thought.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

A hearty "Yay" from the southerly direction for the healthy otter/penguin child.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Yay for healthy Alex!!

I just finished up her afghan - can you email me your snail-mail address to send it to? toni at the-looney-bin dot org.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

Yay for a healthy baby.
Yaaaay!

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Yay indeed. Glad to hear she's thriving!