Two New Doctors

At the end of July Dylan had his 18 month check up with his pediatrician. Dylan weighed in at 18 lbs. 10 oz. The doctor was still concerned with his lack of weight gain and growth. Now if you will remember we have already tested him for all kinds of things through the two screenings with the endocrinologist, which all came back negative.When the doctor suggested we try testing him through another specialist, I had my reservations. As Dylan's mom, I really want to just quit poking him and let him grow. After all, isn't it possible that Dylan has his own growth curve and that there isn't anything else wrong with him? I expressed my concerns with the doctor and he heard them. He checked with the specialists before referring us, but of course the specialists wanted to see Dylan. Here is what we are now looking at, and thanks to Wikipedia for a definition:

Gastroenterology is the branch of medicine whereby the digestive system and its disorders are studied.

In a nut shell, they are worried that Dylan's body is not processing food correctly. Kids with GI disorders might eat enough food, but their body might not absorb all of the nutrients and calories that it should. So along with seeing a "GI" doctor, we also saw a nutritionist at Mary Bridge down in Tacoma. They didn't see anything about Dylan that they felt sent up red flags. Yes he is small, but he is proportional. But since we are in the business of looking under stones a I call it, they wanted to go ahead and do the testing just to be sure. That included a blood draw among other things. Since we were in Tacoma, we couldn't get Dylan's blood drawn up at Children's like I wanted. Thankfully, the lab tech only had to dig in his arm for about 15 seconds before she found his little vein, which is much better than previous experience. We will hear this week if there are any results that raise concern. 

In addition, the nutritionist recommended that we start putting heavy whipping cream, butter or olive oil on Dylan's food to help him get more fat and calories. It doesn't seem healthy, but that's what she said. She also suggested that we start getting a special kind of Pedia-Sure (milk shakes with lots of calories) that have 50% more calories then the shakes you can get at the store. You can't even buy these in the store or pharmacy, so we will see if our insurance will cover home delivery.

The good news is that the pediatrician said that this is most likely the last stone we will look under to determine if there is something causing Dylan's slow growth. So if we don't get any positive results, then Dylan must just be growing on his own schedule. And I am very happy to let him do it in peace!