12 Month Well Visit

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Besides the 12 month mark meaning that my baby is now one it also means that it was time for the next well visit, and this one included a lot of big shots.  I’m always excited to go and see how Nick is growing, but I hate the shots almost as much as Nick does.

Our appointment yesterday was for mid afternoon.  I had made it for late afternoon, but last week the doctor’s office called and asked if we could change.  The earlier appointment meant that we had to delay Nick’s afternoon nap until after the appointment.  Things were a bit frustrating though because everyone seemed to be running a bit behind, so we kept having to wait and wait.  We arrived at the docto’s at 3:00 and it was almost 5:00 when we left.

We found that Nick is still a little tiny thing.  His weight was 18lbs 14oz which puts him in the fourth percentile.  His length was 28.5 inches which puts him in the twelfth percentile.  We were actually all surprised by his length because last month when he went in for a sick visit he was 29.5 inches, but that measurement was well off his normal curve, and 28.5 today wasn’t, so we’re assuming that last month’s measurement was off.  His head was recorded at 18.75 inches which puts him in the eighty-third percentile, but the doctor didn’t think that was right.  The nurse was supposed to remeasure it, but she forgot.

Nick’s doctor was very happy with his progress.  She felt that he is meeting all of his developmental milestones correctly.  She was surprised that the only way Nick can sit up is by doing a sit-up, but since he was able to do it some way she felt that was good enough.  We talked about the fact that Nick doesn’t crawl, but she really wasn’t concerned.  It’s very common now days for babies to skip crawling, and she said Nick is probably just going to be one of them.  She was very happy that he likes to walk all over.

We talked about Nick’s eating habits.  More specifically we focused on his drinking.  Nick can now use a sippy cup, but he doesn’t use it a lot.  I feel that he holds out for his bottle because he likes the comfort of cuddling up and drinking it.  We decided to give Nick his bottles for a little longer and then we’ll transition them to all milk.  The hope is that Nick will realize that his bottles and sippy cups have the same liquid then and he’ll use the cup.  If he still doesn’t want to give up his bottle then she said to cut him off cold turkey.  She said he may get a little dehydrated, but when he’s thirsty he’ll give in and drink from the cup.

We also covered Nick’s egg allergy.  She agreed that the reaction sounded like it was an egg allergy.  She has referred us to a pediatrician allergist at The University of Michigan.  They’ll be calling us to set an appointment up.  Our doctor didn’t feel that we needed to go to an allergist yet if we didn’t want to though.  I think I’m going to find out the cost and then figure out what the insurance will cover and from there decide if we’ll go now or later.  In the meantime we’ll avoid all egg and nut products (many kids that are allergic to eggs also have some type of nut allergy).

We ended the appointment with Nick getting his MMR, Chicken Pox, and Hep A shots.  Then we were really mean and had his blood drawn for his iron and lead test.  Once the blood draw was done we finally got to go home.  Poor Nick was so tired.  It didn’t help that he is fighting a small cold too.  He came home and crashed.  I finally had to wake him at 6:30 for some dinner.

All in all it was another good well visit.  Our goals now are to get rid of the bottle and to slowly get rid of the baby food as well.  My little guy really is growing up.