Ewan's Musings

Eilidh's 8 Month Check (by Vikki)

Vikki writes... Eilidh had her 8 month check yesterday, and I was so glad it was with the usual health visitor who has known Eilidh all her life and knows that her low weight gain is just because she's small and not anything sinister.

Eilidh had her 8 month check yesterday, and I was so glad it was with the usual health visitor who has known Eilidh all her life and knows that her low weight gain is just because she's small and not anything sinister. I was her only appointment too, and as she's retired and only works one day a week because of the shortage of health visitors, I was there for nearly an hour! It was lovely not to be rushed, and I was confident that she carried out all the check she was supposed to (after Wendy telling me Ben didn't even get his hips checked, I was paying close attention!)

She's lost 3oz since last week, but she's had diaorrhea since Sunday, and is a little off her food, so the health visitor wasn't worried. She said not to worry about how tiny she is (she's the size of a 4 month old girl on the 50th centile) but I wish I'd remembered to point out that she's still a long way from doubling her birth rate, and that she'll be 11 months old when she does if she continues on the centile she's on (0.4th). She checked her hips and all the creases in her arms and legs to see they matched up (I don't know what that's about, but it seems to be something they check for - perhaps in a similar way to babies with Down's Syndrome only having one crease in the palms of their hands rather than three) and asked me if I had any concerns about her having a squint. It was something we'd been aware of, mainly in photos of her, but it does seem to be improving. The health visitor said she didn't think it was a problem but that she would make a referral if I wanted. I said I would see how she is at a year. The health visitor said if she is going to develop a squint, it often happens overnight, so if it does, just to contact her for a referral.

She sat Eilidh up to see how well she sits, and offered her a manky elastic band to pick up to check her pincer grip! Eilidh just looked at her as if to say "are you mad woman? I'm not allowed that!" and wouldn't pick it up, so I put my wedding ring in front of her instead, and she pounced on that because she loves playing with it

Then I put Eilidh down on the floor to play while we chatted about home safety, teeth care and the rest. Eilidh was all over the place and babbling away, which was really nice. She's not quite crawling yet, but that doesn't stop her from getting wherever she wants to go!

The health visitor was more than happy with Eilidh and says her lack of growth isn't affecting her development. Her weight and length may be 0.4th centile, but her head circumference is 25th centile, so she's obviously putting more enegry into brain development than growth

So in all I'm feeling a lot more confident. I'm going to start Eilidh on dairy and then wheat over the next few weeks, and then meat after that. That should make buying the occasional jar much easier!

snuggles

V