Since coming home, Gabe has been thoroughly seen for his special need-his glaucoma,but has really not had much medically checked out. We asked the doctor to perform the recent stool samples for parasites etc which can be common in institutionalized children. However, we have not had anything looked into for low iron, things like hep b, lead, or any flags raised about his low weight. Recently I asked an adoption community I am a part of if this is common. Many thought that yes, we should have had all this done or at least should at the 6 month mark. Well, in the next couple of weeks we will be hitting 6 months. So, my friends shared this link to the American Association of Pediatrics brochure for Internationally adopted children http://www.aap.org/sections/adoption/healthtopic/BrochureEasy-to-read.pdf that I plan to take to our doctor this week to see what they think Gabe should have done. I would like them to be monitoring him a little more closely as he is only in the 5th percentile as far as I can tell.
Also, yesterday Gabe was observed by the vision impairment specialist that will be working with him. She really wanted to get to know the child, not just a name on the paper-isn't that wonderful! She agreed that he is not anywhere near a 4 yr old developmentally and she thinks that he would benefit from going to the center more than 1 day a week. So, we are going to work on that in late March. He loves going, but I think it may be hard on his Ayi to let him go as she is really attached!!
Ewen's also very small. When he was in the hospital for his foot, they asked me if he was always this small. (Ummm... as far as I know; I'm not starving the kid! He eats like crazy!) Anyway, they gave me a handout for a high-fat, high-caloric diet. It was rediculous! It suggested things like giving him fruit in heavy syrup, lots of mayo on everything, and a whole bunch of other useless fat and calories. This kid eats like crazy, and just because he love his veggies and fruit, I'm supposed to assimilate him into a fat American!!!! It really made me so mad! Yeah, I'd like to see him grow a little more, but by eating nuts, peanut butter, whole milk, etc. Not this rediculous diet! Okay, done venting; don't let anyone tell you there's something wrong with Gabe just because he's small. Part of it is genetics, part is diet; and it's not necessarily a bad thing to be on the lower end of the American growth charts.
ReplyDelete