Elizabeth’s Progress
Many of you have asked how Elizabeth is doing and others have not known what’s up or what the context of the “how she’s doing” is, so I thought it good to share here is what’s going on w/Elizabeth and her health and development so that you may have as complete a picture as you desire and know where we’re at.
For context, as kids grow, their height and weight are plotted on a chart and generally these statistics follow a certain growth curve. Physicians don’t look for particular weights but for steady growth on the curve w/o significant deviation. Back in early March, she weighed 15 lbs., 4 oz. This was a slight dip in her curve so we began to watch her growth but were not at that point concerned.
Of additional interest were that her gross motor development showed some more significant deviations from the “norm”, in that she hardly if ever rolled over and was not able to stand or get herself into or out of a sitting position, all of which are quite normal at a year of age.
At Elizabeth’s “one-year checkup” in early April (she was actually about 13 months) she weighed 15 lbs. 8 oz. and was still not rolling over etc. Her height and head circumference, as well as other areas of physical development, continued to progress along the curve and in normal fashions. The doctor recommended some diagnostics be done to see if there was a cause for the gross motor delays and her not gaining weight as she ought to.
We took Elizabeth to get her head x-rayed in mid-April (to see if the growth plates in her head had fused prematurely) - they are fine, no signs of trouble. We took her to have her heart checked by a cardiologist in mid-May, as she does have a heart murmur and I have a genetic heart defect (repaired when I was young). At this visit, she again weighed 15 lbs. 8 oz.. As to her heart, there was no immediate concern and no signs of a heart defect although she will continue to see the cardiologist annually for another year or two to be certain as these conditions can be subtle. However a subtle condition would not be causing the issues we’ve seen.
We in the meantime followed the doctor’s recommendations for enforced “tummy time” and she did begin rolling over by the end of April at will. Her “johnny jump-up” and “exersaucer” homework (to strengthen her legs) have also helped. We’ve seen improvment and she certainly loves doing “jumpies” and is obviously able to bear weight on her legs, though she still does not like to stand when we try to encourage it (though we can get her to do so on rare occasions). Still, while it’s slow, we are pleased to see progress.
Throughout this time Elizabeth had colds on and off as did all of us, but was generally healthy (or so we thought) and happy and appeared to us to eat well with the exception of a 10-day virus at the end of May where she was truly sick and truly did lose her appetite. In mid-June, we had another doctor’s visit where her weight was 15 lbs. 4 oz. We were shocked as she’d been well and back to her usual good eating habits for a couple weeks. All in all this meant that for three months, she’d not gained even an ounce. Obviously, this was not growth “along the curve” (it was flatlined!) and was of concern to all of us.
That same week, we took her in to have her blood drawn and did a urine collection so that they could do a complete bloodwork and urinary analysis. These would test for hormonal imbalances, blood cell counts, proper endocrine and excretory functions, etc. All these tests came back normal which was fine and good, except that we had no explanation for why she wasn’t gaining weight.
Again, that same week, we finally had our long-awaited appointment with the Child Diagnostic Center which helps diagnose developmental and growth delays, and depending on the results of the several hour long evaluation, refers out to different doctors and specialists for care and/or further evaluation. The bottom line of that visit is that her development is fine and even a bit advanced in the fine motor areas, with the exception of her weight and her gross motor skills as already observed. There is also an issue we were already following regarding her facial structure (she was born w/an assymetric jaw which may or may not need correction as it may have been caused by her position in utero and will if so correct itself) and that will continue to be monitored as she grows with the next analysis of that in about 5 months by a group of doctors in the “cranial facial specialty” area, but again, this is not of immediate concern. There is at this point no explanation for her delays and we were accordingly referred to a nutritionist and also for physical therapy. Assuming she responds positively to both of these “interventions”, there will be no need for further diagnostics so that is our current course of action and our prayer would be that this would be the case.
We filled out extensive paperwork including a three-day complete nutritional intake chart and that was analyzed for our first visit w/the nutritionist (mid-July). At that visit, Elizabeth had gained roughly a pound (she was approximately 16 lbs. 4 oz though I forgot to write down the specific weight). The analysis showed she was indeed, as we had thought, eating plenty of a wide variety of foods, with adequate balance and plenty of calories for gaining weight. If 500 calories a day would maintain her current weight, the desired caloric intake was about 700 for weight gain and hers was more like 900. We remain puzzled as to why she hasn’t been gaining weight, but were encouraged all the same by the weight gain and the analysis.
An informal weight check at the doctor’s office yesterday (end of July) measured her at 17 lbs so we continue to see good weight gain and look forward to the next visit w/the nutritionist some time in August.
As to the physical therapy, we have completed step one (initial consultation) of a three-step evaluation and step two (a formal evaluation by a physical therapist) will be this coming Monday (8/1). We look forward to then discussing the “plan of action” (that will be step three) and beginning to implement that plan thereafter. In the meantime, we hope to learn on Monday a few things we can be doing with her to encourage her gross motor development.
