Gwen (and Luke and Jenn): Informational Update, Year 1

Yes, this is really far behind, but deal. :)

The child turned one on the fifth, and that same day she had to go get her shots and checkup. Not a fun birthday, really. For some reason, she truly despises being weighed and measured. No clue why. Well, at one year she was 15.0 pounds and 25.5 inches, each of them less than the third percentile for children her age. She seems to be developing well, she babbles all the time, she can eat solid food, she's very alert and curious, etc.

Things we have tried to eat:
Banana (not a fan)
Pear (same)
Green beans (won't touch them)
Peas (same)
Corn (same)
Egg yolk (same)
Cottage cheese (limited success)
Cheerios (not interested)

Things we have eaten at least moderately successfully:
Pizza
Gravy
Tuna
Taco meat
Muenster cheese
Freeze-dried apples
Bread
Crackers
English muffin with butter
English muffin with strawberry jam
Spaghetti
Hot dog
Ham
Summer sausage
Hamburger

There's obviously plenty of others, but I'm drawing a blank here. So far, she's turning into us food-wise. Not so good, but we're doing what we can. Drinking out of a cup is not going super well - she likes to play with the cup, and she can drink a bit if you hold it, but the only interest she has in holding it is to play with it. When she doesn't want something, she puts a hand in front of her face and waves it back and forth pretty quickly. And when she doesn't want something, she REALLY doesn't want it. That's been true since day one, and I expect it will be for years to come.

Her pediatrician also became concerned during her 9 month checkup about her size. She's always been little, and there's no issue there, as long as she keeps growing. The problem was that she was falling away from the expected height line on the growth chart:

For those of you who didn't study statistics, this article will help you to understand what all this means.

There's a lot of variability in children this age, as you can see by the spread of the lines. There is no "normal" height or weight, but there is concern if the child doesn't follow the general shape of the curve. The lowest of the lines is for the second percentile, i.e. if you're on that line, 2% of your peers are smaller than you (or 98% are bigger than you, either way).

So at each of Gwen's checkups, they record her height and weight as a point on the curve. Here's what I have for Gwen from birth to 9 months:

I'm missing some data points between birth and 4 months, unfortunately. If you look at the higher part of the chart, you'll see why the doctor became concerned. If you imagine a curve going through those last 3 dots you'll see her height diverging from the expected shape of the other lines. This could be an indication that she's not absorbing enough nutrients from food, that her bones have something preventing them from growing, hormone problems, who knows. The doctor decided to send her to an endocrinologist at Children's Mercy, to check thyroid function and other stuff I don't understand.

We finally made it into the doctor on September 30. A nightmare getting there, then the doctor didn't show, etc. Finally we saw another doctor and he ordered some blood tests and then a "wait and see" in 6 months. If we don't hear anything from them before then, we're to assume all the tests went well. One of the tests takes more than 30 days to do, so we're still waiting on it.

At her one year checkup just a few days later, she was measured and weighed again. Here's the chart including that data:

She had jumped up enough that she may again be paralleling the curve. As such, the pediatrician and endocrinologist are both waiting for another data point at 18 months before deciding what to do. Growth hormone may be in order, but we're not excited about the prospect. We'll wait and see.

Now, time for some pics n stuff!