Olivia had her weight check and check for her ear infection. Good news is that her ears were all cleared up and looking good. Bad news was she has actually lost 2 ounces in the past three weeks. I was looking through her baby book stuff tonight and she was 14 lbs 14 oz at her 6 month check AND at her 9 month check. And then today she was down to 14 lbs. 12 oz. So we now have to go back every month to get her weight checked.
Now I used to like the kids pediatrician. And still do, mostly. But I was a little sad that he didn't tell me to get Aidan's eyes checked when I voiced my concern at his 3 year check. So I am a little bit of a protective mother bear when I go into the check-ups with him now. So today, when he was thinking out loud and mentioning things like cystic fibrosis and some other ones I don't remember now, and saying, "well, she doesn't look emaciated", makes the mama bear very defensive!
I think she is just a tiny peanut. I am a little concerned that she has not gained any weight and actually lost 2 ounces in 3 weeks, but was just not super thrilled with his use of the word emaciated and just casually mentioning cystic fibrosis. But, I am not the doctor, I am just the mama bear (or I guess mama bunny in Olivia's case :) ). So we will keep feeding her just like we are, hoping she will start liking finger foods and go back in for a weight check in a month.
On to Aidan. We went and picked up some patches at Target today. I was a little anxious to how he would react to them, but need to go ahead and start - so I tried it this afternoon. I bought some dinosaur and shark stickers for him to decorate his patches as they are just a plain beige thing that looks like a band-aid. He chose a dinosaur sticker and put it on. We put the patch on and he decided he would like to color. Get all the markers and paper out, after a minute of trying to peek out of the patched eye he said he was all done. I kept upbeat and said that Dr. Hansen said he needed to wear his pirate patch for an hour each day. He said, "let's just try it for one minute". I said, "how about 5?" So he agreed. He colored some planets and the sun. He kept trying to move his glasses around to make it easier to see. I kept distracting him and getting him to focus his attention on his drawing and what else he needed to add to his universe. At one point he did jump up and say he wanted to see what his patch looked like on. So he ran upstairs to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I thought I was going to have to help him get around, as he says he can only see blurs when he is only looking through his right eye. But he had no problems walking around, so I was at least a little encouraged by that. We went back down to do some more coloring. Aunt Carrie was stopping by to visit this afternoon so that was another great distraction and he wanted to leave his patch on to show her.
In the end we had an entire universe, complete with all planets (including the dwarf planets), asteroids, comets, space station, space shuttle, astronauts, sun. satellites, lines showing the orbits, other galaxies, and stars. He had also made it the entire hour with the patch on. So we took it off. Sooooooooooo much worse than ripping off a band-aid. Because it is stickier, and on the sensitive eye area. And ripped out a bunch of eyebrow hairs.
So now I am on a search for the best alternative to these adhesive patches. There are several companies that make a cloth patch that can go over the glasses and eye. Just trying to figure out which is the best one. Which can get it here fastest (or at the very least guarantee it gets to this address before we move - two weeks from today!) Does anyone know anyone that has had a child with amblyopia that had to patch and got one of the reusable cloth patches? I would love to have some guidance and which company makes the best ones.
This mama needs a drink - or a nice long bath in my new bubble tub at the new house!
Now I used to like the kids pediatrician. And still do, mostly. But I was a little sad that he didn't tell me to get Aidan's eyes checked when I voiced my concern at his 3 year check. So I am a little bit of a protective mother bear when I go into the check-ups with him now. So today, when he was thinking out loud and mentioning things like cystic fibrosis and some other ones I don't remember now, and saying, "well, she doesn't look emaciated", makes the mama bear very defensive!
I think she is just a tiny peanut. I am a little concerned that she has not gained any weight and actually lost 2 ounces in 3 weeks, but was just not super thrilled with his use of the word emaciated and just casually mentioning cystic fibrosis. But, I am not the doctor, I am just the mama bear (or I guess mama bunny in Olivia's case :) ). So we will keep feeding her just like we are, hoping she will start liking finger foods and go back in for a weight check in a month.
On to Aidan. We went and picked up some patches at Target today. I was a little anxious to how he would react to them, but need to go ahead and start - so I tried it this afternoon. I bought some dinosaur and shark stickers for him to decorate his patches as they are just a plain beige thing that looks like a band-aid. He chose a dinosaur sticker and put it on. We put the patch on and he decided he would like to color. Get all the markers and paper out, after a minute of trying to peek out of the patched eye he said he was all done. I kept upbeat and said that Dr. Hansen said he needed to wear his pirate patch for an hour each day. He said, "let's just try it for one minute". I said, "how about 5?" So he agreed. He colored some planets and the sun. He kept trying to move his glasses around to make it easier to see. I kept distracting him and getting him to focus his attention on his drawing and what else he needed to add to his universe. At one point he did jump up and say he wanted to see what his patch looked like on. So he ran upstairs to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I thought I was going to have to help him get around, as he says he can only see blurs when he is only looking through his right eye. But he had no problems walking around, so I was at least a little encouraged by that. We went back down to do some more coloring. Aunt Carrie was stopping by to visit this afternoon so that was another great distraction and he wanted to leave his patch on to show her.
In the end we had an entire universe, complete with all planets (including the dwarf planets), asteroids, comets, space station, space shuttle, astronauts, sun. satellites, lines showing the orbits, other galaxies, and stars. He had also made it the entire hour with the patch on. So we took it off. Sooooooooooo much worse than ripping off a band-aid. Because it is stickier, and on the sensitive eye area. And ripped out a bunch of eyebrow hairs.
So now I am on a search for the best alternative to these adhesive patches. There are several companies that make a cloth patch that can go over the glasses and eye. Just trying to figure out which is the best one. Which can get it here fastest (or at the very least guarantee it gets to this address before we move - two weeks from today!) Does anyone know anyone that has had a child with amblyopia that had to patch and got one of the reusable cloth patches? I would love to have some guidance and which company makes the best ones.
This mama needs a drink - or a nice long bath in my new bubble tub at the new house!
2 comments:
I can sympathize with your mama bunny feelings. Totally normal, I think. Thinking about you and hoping you see improvement!
One of our toddlers had to patch her eye, and that was a challenge to get her to keep it on. Eventually her mom got one of those cloth patches that go over the glasses and it was so much better (besides the fact that she was older and used to the patching, it was less uncomfortable because it wasn't the bandaid kind). I would recommend them, plus this little girl had a princess on it, so it was more fun to wear!
Good luck!
Bridget
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