Taisei Buffet

Monday, July 09, 2007

Fifteen Month Check Up

Weight: 19.1 lbs - he has fallen off the weight chart, i.e. He's negative %!
Height: 31 inches - he's shot up to 50%. Is that really correct? He did hold still for the nurse to measure.
Head: 46.2 cm - 25%. Hopefully that means his brain is growing too?

Questions for the Doc:
  • What should we do about his poor eating habits? Well, he doesn't exactly have fat parents. Don't worry about it. He'll eat when he wants to. Just don't fill him up with junk food.
  • Should we supplement with vitamins or iron? You don't need to, but you can give him vitamin supplements if you want.
  • His weight gain is so slow, but he's hanging out of his car seat and the should straps barely are almost too low now. What do you say? Yes, move him to a forward facing car seat now.
  • He gets patches of itchy skin - eczema, probably? Try to avoid having to use steroids, especially on the face, by generously applying Cetaphil moisturizer to his whole body.
  • We tried the Benedryl trick for the plane flight, but was the dosage not enough? Next time, try Dramamine. That'll knock him out.
  • Can we use sunscreen now? Yes, any decent sunscreen should be OK at this point. Make sure you use it.
  • What should we watch out for at this age? The two greatest dangers are water and burns. He won't purposely get near a heat source, but he may accidentally trip into a BBQ or a campfire. Get him a wading pool, but make sure to watch him. Babies drown far too often around here and it only takes 2 inches of water.
  • Anything else? Taisei should be having his teeth brushed regularly now. It should be at least a couple times a day. And don't give him the bottle before bedtime or it will rot his teeth out.
  • Lastly, establish order and structure in the home. Taisei is at the stage where he is constantly testing you, pushing your limits and seeing how far he can go.

New words: Duck, Na-na (grandma), Doctor (maybe just a one-time copy-cat word), ball. This "new words" section is probably about to end because he's already copying several new words a day. I'm guessing that means a "word explosion" is imminent and there will be no keeping up with the new words of the day anymore.

New trick:
  • Gives kisses on demand, always with a loud "smack." We don't know how he learned this. Yesterday Na-na asked him for a kiss, and he just did it! I don't feel like we ever used the word "kiss" much. Amazing synapses action.

posted by Jerin at 8:32 AM

6 comment(s):

very interesting. Goof stuff for us to learn from.

By Blogger Aaron and Emily, at 7/11/2007 10:35 PM  

hello, jason and i had no idea about the no sunscreen thing. we just started using it after six months like the bottle said. our doctors (we've had 5 of them from moving around so much and also the navy is just touch and go with a primary care physician) never said anything about it. luckily, elias has never had a really adverse allergic reaction to it, but who knows what all those chemicals seeped into his body will do to him! he'll probably go bald in middle age.

By Blogger Michelle, at 7/12/2007 4:48 AM  

If you're not adverse to alternative medicine options, and you're worried about allergies, you might want to look into NAET (check naet.com). My aunt is an acupuncturist and NAET practitioner and let us know about it. Andersen has had almost constant eczema since he was born, and some notable food allergies (egg white, milk products). Since he's begun NAET treatment, he already is able to eat dairy products and egg without any reaction, and his eczema has noticeably subsided.

By Blogger andrew, at 7/12/2007 5:46 AM  

There are many techniques for eliminating allergies. You endorse this one in particular, Dru? Additionally, do you think Neo's eczema is primarily due to allergies? I have a feeling Taisei's is a combination of environment (Utah's dryness) and food, since his tends to start around his mouth and quickly spreads to his body.

By Blogger Jerin, at 7/12/2007 9:13 AM  

Kaneyukis - I don't know what's wrong w/ sunscreen, really. Wami's just as equally protective about Taisei's skin as the Dr. is. But I'm sure it's better that Elias didn't get burned anyway.

On the other hand, I know that deet (used in mosquito repellent) is definitely bad for babies.

By Blogger Jerin, at 7/12/2007 9:16 AM  

I don't know too much about other allergy elimination techniques. But in regards to NAET, we're finding it effective and would recommend it.

One thing, you have to be careful about choosing your practitioner. Make sure you know enough about NAET so you know if the practitioner is practicing it the way it's been proscribed. The site has listings of practitioners and also shows the dates of their last trainings in NAET, so that's a good start.

There's a lot I could say about NAET, but it would be pretty long. You definitely have to go in with an open mind, because it's a very different way of thinking. So far, I have nothing to say but good, if that changes, I'll let you know. If you want to talk more about it, just email me or call me.

By Blogger andrew, at 7/12/2007 11:41 AM  

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