Saturday, February 21, 2009

2 Year Checkup

We had to take Adelae to the doctor yesterday for her 2 year checkup. After the last appointment when she screamed the whole time, I thought I'd better prepare her. So, I spent the last few days showing her how to open her mouth wide and say "AHHHH" and pretend checking her ears, eyes, nose and reflexes. We pretended so much that she was ready to rock the doctor's appointment. She told Ben and I in the car "Adele's turn doctor. Say "AHHH," check your ears, check your eyes." I was excited! I thought "This is going to be a breeze!" Well, as with so many things, I was wrong. Not just a little wrong, but absolutely dead wrong.
She was fine when the nurse came in and I was chatting about Adelae's various ailments (possible extra tooth and chronic constipation). Then it came time to lay her down on the bed to check her height. (In case you're not familiar with this, it's simple. They lay the child down, make marks on the paper at the top of the head and the bottom of the feet. Then measure it with a tape measure.) Adelae started SCREAMING! Not crying, not protesting, but shrieking at the top of her lungs. Her little eyes immediately filled with tears, she started kicking, swinging her arms and thrashing her head around. I thought "This is NOT going to go well." As you can guess, the rest of the appointment went pretty much the same way. The poor doctor was barely able to even look in Adelae's ears, nose or mouth. We're pretty much going on the assumption that if she can scream that loud for that long, nothing is wrong!
The best part of the visit? She had to get a shot. Oh boy...that was NOT fun! Thank goodness the staff is very quick at giving shots. It seemed that they were a little hesitant to schedule Adelae's 3 year check up! Hmm....wonder why......
On the bright side, Adelae has gained about 4 pounds in the last year and is finally above the 10th percentile in weight. We've been trying to bulk her up! She stands roughly 34 inches tall, about the 50th percentile for her age. The doctor does think that Adelae has an extra tooth, but was unable to get a really good look at it. Apparently, extra teeth are very common in children with cleft pallets (Adelae's was fused a birth, so we're not sure what the actual side effects will be. Apparently it's extremely rare, so we're just all playing it by ear.) The doctor referred us to a pediatric dentist and encouraged us to make an appointment as soon as we can. We're going to try some natural remedies for Adelae's chronic constipation before we resort to seeing a specialist or medicines. Right now she is very limited on the amount of dairy she can have and is to get prune juice at least once a day. If that doesn't work, we're to eliminate dairy completely. If THAT doesn't work, we have to call the doctor and get a referral for a specialist. Luckily Adelae likes prune juice. She actually asks for it!
If there is anyone that would like to volunteer to take Adelae to her first dentist appointment, let me know! I'm betting that will be a lot of fun! ;-)

1 comment:

Ashley T said...

I'm surprised your office doesn't have her stand up against the wall yet.. she's tall enough. They had Hayden stand up against the wall his last 2 appts and he went on the big people scale.