The 3 Year Old Checkup

We had our annual visit to the pediatrician for The Boy's three year checkup on Friday. Overall it went really well. I am pretty used to getting bad news where The Boy is concerned so it doesn't overwhelm me all that much anymore. And really, we didn't get any bad news. We didn't hear anything that we didn't already know.

It started out with the scale where they weighed him and measured how tall he was. He is used to his gastro doctor where he has to strip down to nothing to get weighed so when they told him it was time to get weighed, he started undressing. The nurse laughed and told him he simply had to take off his shoes. He looked at me like, "Are you sure she knows how this is done Mommy?" But I told him that for this doctor that's all he had to do. Well hot damn! He was stoked. So he took off the shoes and stood up there as tall as he could. The stats: Fully clothed he weighed 26 1/2 pounds and he measured 34 1/2 inches tall. We'll get to this later...

The he had to hop up on a chair and have his blood pressure taken. Again, this happens at the gastro doc so he knows all about it and put his little arm straight out and then took the little bulb thing in his other hand and informed the nurse that he would do it. Nice. He gave it back to her after I promised he could take mine when we got home (he has a doctor kit that he loves). Next came time for the hearing test. She told him they were going to play a game and he was going to wear headphones and every time he heard a beep he was to put one of the blocks into the basket. She gave him a bunch of colored blocks in his lap and an empty basket in front of him. She demonstrated a few times and he seemed like he understood. So she puts the headphones on and every time he heard something he would look at us and yell, "I HEAR A DA BEEP!" She would say, "Okay then put a block in the basket." He would look at the blocks and say, "How bout the red one?" "Yeah...any block...it's fine." "Oh, okay...how bout the yeyyow one?" "No really, ANY block is fine." "Oh, den I yike a da green one..." This would go on until another beep would sound and he would be startled and sit straight up and yell at us, "I HEAR DA NOTHER BEEP!" And we would start the coloring of the blocks all over again... Overall he got the point across that he heard all of the beeps and yes, he knows and understands all of his colors.

Then we headed to the room to wait for the doctor. At that point he had to strip down to his underwear (well that's what the nurse said...I didn't have the heart to tell her it was still diapers...BAD MOMMY! BAD MOMMY!). So he did that fine and then he decided it was time to become Buzz Lightyear. He ran around the room and "lasered" my mom and me. In fact when the doctor did come in, he was in a lunge position screaming "To da see...and BEYOND!" (that first part is supposed to be infinity, but he hasn't really mastered that word yet). The doc laughed and expressed that his little boy had once too, been Buzz. At that point The Boy completely surprised me and ran over to me, yanked up my shirt and pointed to my tummy and said to the doctor, "You have a check my baby [girl name]." The doc politely explained that he would be happy to check her out, however it was customary to have her OUT of Mommy's tummy before he could do that. But totally cute.

So then came the exam. I won't bore you with all the details. Basically The Boy seems to have lost about a year's worth of growth. He has grown 3 inches since last year, which is apparently normal, but he is at the 0 percentile on the growth chart. He was just under the 5th percentile for weight. He has gained about 4 pounds since last year. So he is actually growing, but if you compare him to other three year olds, he doesn't come anywhere close. He is about the size of a (very small) two year old. Whatever. Not news to me. I am aware of our growth issues. But our doc said that when kids don't grow "properly" the thing we get concerned about is their brain development. It is very clear that The Boy's brain is right on track (in fact he tests way above his age level for problem solving and letters/numbers etc) so we aren't too concerned. He is just going to be a little guy. "A little peanut" is what his doc said. Not so shocking given that Mommy is only 5'3" and that donor Daddy is probably only 5'6" or so.

Since there were no shots involved (we are done with shots until kindergarten time) and frankly, The Boy goes to the doctor at least every two months, he had no issues. He laughed and played and stood on one foot and jumped and did everything the doctor asked him to. All the while completely charming him. I mean, of course he did...this is my child after all. But he was totally unfazed by the entire thing, which as a parent, is the best you could hope for.

The only thing to report is that we might be going back to one of our specialists that we had previously "graduated" from. His endocrinologist. Or the lady who might possibly have to give growth hormones... She had said that as long as he stayed within the 5th to 10th percentile in height we didn't have to come back to her anymore. Well, as of yesterday's charting, he has fallen below that. We talked to his ped about it and he suggested that we wait until our next "weigh in" in February and see where he charts on that one. Since we see his gastro every 2 months or so, that is what we have been using as our standard to make sure he stays above the 5th percentile in height. Last time we saw gastro (in December) he was between the 5th and 10th percentile according to her chart. So when we see her in February we will see where he falls according to her chart. If it is under the 5th percentile, then I guess we are going back to the endo again. If not, then we carry on. So going forward we have weigh in with gastro in mid February (where I anticipate he will be put back on the medicine to stimulate his appetite) and then a follow up with his neurologist on the 20th of February. Depending on how he does with gastro we might then be going back to the endo doc. Specialists, specialists everywhere...

But overall, the total of these doctors all agree that my boy is an amazing little boy who is thriving and doing great. He's just very little. We will probably struggle with the "size" thing for quite a while to come. But like his pediatrician said, as long as we know the brain is doing its thing, I am not worried. And he is happy and healthy and just the most amazing little boy I know. So for right now, I am cool.