"Two therapods and a tyrannosaurus rex, Mommy!" Nathaniel can identify a dozen dinosaurs without thinking. It's really quite amazing. When we went to the zoo, I made sure to get tickets t the animatronic dinosaur exhibit. Natty was scared at first - the loud, sudden calls from speakers, one dinosaur actively eating another dead one, and a spitting dinosaur, it was all a little terrifying. We left the exhibit and he looked at me and said, "Let's go again, Mommy!" So we did. And on that trip around the exhibit, no fear, just calm discussion, repeating the things I'd explained as we'd made our first visit. "Look, Mommy, he's a carnivore so he has to eat meat, so he waits until one dies because he was too sick and couldn't see a doctor and then he eats ..." and "They're in a group, Mommy. They're friends walking together on the playground!" Nathaniel adored that visit.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Amiss
I have been amiss. Gone. Hasta luego.
It's not that I don't like to write - I do - I've just been a teensy bit busy and had forgotten I had a blog. Of course.
So, let's see. Nathaniel just celebrated his 4th birthday. He's so happy to be 4. His latest accomplishments are pretty neat.
First, he adores trains still, but now with a look at the real ones. We chased a train all over our town the other night. It went by the power plant, so we went to head it off. It stopped before it got to us and we watched as the brakeman released the derailleur and switched the track so it could go into a siding. Then it started backwards into the power plant siding. So off we went to the power plant and watched gleefully as the 2-locomotive train took 4 cars into the plant, down a siding we'd never seen anything go down before and into the bowels of the power plant. Less than 15 minutes later, here came the engines again, this time sans cars. It was awesome! A couple waves by the engineer and brakeman, another switching of the derailleur and siding, then the train went back to the yard, with us bebopping through town, chasing it down again and again. On the last street, I was telling Nathaniel we REALLY needed gas, that I was going to run out, that we couldn't put it off anymore. And then as we watched the engines hitch up to a long line of cars, he yelled from the backseat "Mommy! Get some gas at that station! They're coupling up!" Yeah, he still likes trains ...
Next, Nathaniel is a water fiend. We go to a park that has this awesome little train. In addition, it has a sandbox with a cemented rock top that has a water pipe in it. You push a button and out oozes water. Well, the Natster loves it. Sits in the lake the water creates at the bottom. Sits straight down. I have to press the button a hundred times during our trips to the park, just to keep it all running. Well, we live in beach country. We go to the beach and he has no fear. He adores the ocean, runs straight for it. (In truth, this disturbs me a great deal, that he has no healthy caution for the danger it can pose.) We jump the waves. His laughter is pure girly scream, pure delight, pure joy. He loves to sink his feet in the sand. He loves the crashing. The only thing Nathaniel is not delighted with is swallowing salt water -- he upchucks immediately and continues to spit and slobber for half an hour, determined to get that yuck out of his mouth. Last beach trip, a man was rising out of concern and I waved him back down - yeah, I got this. I doubt the man could ever have understood that Natty just has these schticks and tasting salt water is one of them. You see, Natty has a lot of diagnoses - apraxia (the oral motor disorder), sensory processing disorder, anxiety disorder, feeding disorder, and eosinophilic esophagitis - and not liking a particular taste would come under one, upchucking because he swallowed it would come with another, and spitting and drooling would come with a third ... so I daresay, he earned the right to upchuck, spit, and drool quite nicely. When he was done with this demonstration of distaste, a second passed, and he looked at me and said, "Mommy, let's go jump the waves some more!" Oh yes, my sunshine, let's do!
Next, let's talk sheer smarts. We've been doing a lot of smarty pants rhyming lately. There are these words he's learned at school that the other kids say. They are forbidden at school, termed "bathroom talk" and represent the various body parts or bodily functions. Well, Natty knows them of course. And walks the line. It is SOOOOOO frustrating on one hand, but also SOOOOOO peacock-in-full-spread-ish of him. Instead of saying "poopy" (which assuredly IS bathroom talk), he says "pooty" or "tooty" but never "booty" ... I am serious! He has internalized the words which are not allowed and learned that we can't get him on the rhyming words! Ugh! So this morning, when he was again going down the forbidden-but-not path and I wasn't in the mood, I talked to him about synonyms. He knows that locomotive and engine mean the same thing. As do lawn/grass, happy/glad, angry/sad, automobile/car, tractor trailer/truck, etc. He's thinking about it now ... and I hope this is a distracting task for him. Because, yes, I got it, he learned how to rhyme, while also how to drive his mommy nuts!
Now let's talk growth. As you might have noticed from the above list of diagnoses, Nathaniel is no longer diagnosed with Failure to Thrive. Whoo hoo! It's been a journey, it has. It all began last year when we started at Duke with the neurologist, who found no neurological reason for the speech regressions. Well, we had a followup appointment where she discovered Nathaniel had not grown in the 3 months since she'd last seen him. Worse, his head circumference did not grow. I was very worried because he wasn't eating well and I was ... how to put this delicately? ... FREAKING.OUT. She referred us to the GI there at Duke and we got in to see the head of pediatric gastroenterology on her referral. Well, he listened to my description and scheduled us for an endoscopy, on the slight chance he might have a rare disease. Yeah, you guessed it. Eosinophilic esophagitis. Causes food refusal. Incurable but treatable, thank goodness. Basically asthma of the esophagus. Natty's disease is at the cellular level, instigated by invisible non IgE mediated food allergies, which basically means we may never know WHAT he's allergic to. (long story) Well, because of this GI, I met the nutritionist, and because it was Duke, where all the tough cases go, well, she SPOKE MY LANGUAGE! It was like coming home! She got the oral sensitivities, the way he rejects things because they don't taste right, how hard it was to get him to drink his Pediasure or eat, everything! She spent about 20 minutes troubleshooting the issues with me, giving suggestions, and I walked out with a shopping list - Pediasure 1.5, Duocal, and periactin. Periactin was a distinct hit, increasing his appetite markedly. The Pediasure 1.5 had been a bust, but she taught me how to wean Nathaniel onto it by mixing it a little bit more each day into his regular Pediasure. And Duocal adds calories but no change in thickness, so we were a go. It was awesome. Less than 4 months later, we had kicked FTT to the curb! Whoo hoo! And since then, holy cow! He is a GROWING machine! He went from below the weight chart to 50th percentile in 1 year! He went from 10th percentile height to just 25th but we're making gains there too ... and the head. My little bobblehead's head is still growing. I don't size up his shirts based on his height - nah, I do it based on his head circumference getting through the danged hole! We were in 24 m pants in December and now, 3T. He's chunky, maybe even getting pudgy around his middle, having some real girth to him, which he has never had before. It's awesome. Nathaniel's feet are serious boats ... they grew 1 size in 3 months, which is twice as fast as a normal kid. Yeah, he's growing. While he's still not up to par on the eating scene, he can suck that Pediasure down like a champ. Love it. Love that I am no longer worried about calories, etc. Yay!
OK, the time is late and I have an early morning. Sometime soon, I hope to return to tell you more about my little wonder. Happy evening!
It's not that I don't like to write - I do - I've just been a teensy bit busy and had forgotten I had a blog. Of course.
So, let's see. Nathaniel just celebrated his 4th birthday. He's so happy to be 4. His latest accomplishments are pretty neat.
First, he adores trains still, but now with a look at the real ones. We chased a train all over our town the other night. It went by the power plant, so we went to head it off. It stopped before it got to us and we watched as the brakeman released the derailleur and switched the track so it could go into a siding. Then it started backwards into the power plant siding. So off we went to the power plant and watched gleefully as the 2-locomotive train took 4 cars into the plant, down a siding we'd never seen anything go down before and into the bowels of the power plant. Less than 15 minutes later, here came the engines again, this time sans cars. It was awesome! A couple waves by the engineer and brakeman, another switching of the derailleur and siding, then the train went back to the yard, with us bebopping through town, chasing it down again and again. On the last street, I was telling Nathaniel we REALLY needed gas, that I was going to run out, that we couldn't put it off anymore. And then as we watched the engines hitch up to a long line of cars, he yelled from the backseat "Mommy! Get some gas at that station! They're coupling up!" Yeah, he still likes trains ...
Next, Nathaniel is a water fiend. We go to a park that has this awesome little train. In addition, it has a sandbox with a cemented rock top that has a water pipe in it. You push a button and out oozes water. Well, the Natster loves it. Sits in the lake the water creates at the bottom. Sits straight down. I have to press the button a hundred times during our trips to the park, just to keep it all running. Well, we live in beach country. We go to the beach and he has no fear. He adores the ocean, runs straight for it. (In truth, this disturbs me a great deal, that he has no healthy caution for the danger it can pose.) We jump the waves. His laughter is pure girly scream, pure delight, pure joy. He loves to sink his feet in the sand. He loves the crashing. The only thing Nathaniel is not delighted with is swallowing salt water -- he upchucks immediately and continues to spit and slobber for half an hour, determined to get that yuck out of his mouth. Last beach trip, a man was rising out of concern and I waved him back down - yeah, I got this. I doubt the man could ever have understood that Natty just has these schticks and tasting salt water is one of them. You see, Natty has a lot of diagnoses - apraxia (the oral motor disorder), sensory processing disorder, anxiety disorder, feeding disorder, and eosinophilic esophagitis - and not liking a particular taste would come under one, upchucking because he swallowed it would come with another, and spitting and drooling would come with a third ... so I daresay, he earned the right to upchuck, spit, and drool quite nicely. When he was done with this demonstration of distaste, a second passed, and he looked at me and said, "Mommy, let's go jump the waves some more!" Oh yes, my sunshine, let's do!
Next, let's talk sheer smarts. We've been doing a lot of smarty pants rhyming lately. There are these words he's learned at school that the other kids say. They are forbidden at school, termed "bathroom talk" and represent the various body parts or bodily functions. Well, Natty knows them of course. And walks the line. It is SOOOOOO frustrating on one hand, but also SOOOOOO peacock-in-full-spread-ish of him. Instead of saying "poopy" (which assuredly IS bathroom talk), he says "pooty" or "tooty" but never "booty" ... I am serious! He has internalized the words which are not allowed and learned that we can't get him on the rhyming words! Ugh! So this morning, when he was again going down the forbidden-but-not path and I wasn't in the mood, I talked to him about synonyms. He knows that locomotive and engine mean the same thing. As do lawn/grass, happy/glad, angry/sad, automobile/car, tractor trailer/truck, etc. He's thinking about it now ... and I hope this is a distracting task for him. Because, yes, I got it, he learned how to rhyme, while also how to drive his mommy nuts!
Now let's talk growth. As you might have noticed from the above list of diagnoses, Nathaniel is no longer diagnosed with Failure to Thrive. Whoo hoo! It's been a journey, it has. It all began last year when we started at Duke with the neurologist, who found no neurological reason for the speech regressions. Well, we had a followup appointment where she discovered Nathaniel had not grown in the 3 months since she'd last seen him. Worse, his head circumference did not grow. I was very worried because he wasn't eating well and I was ... how to put this delicately? ... FREAKING.OUT. She referred us to the GI there at Duke and we got in to see the head of pediatric gastroenterology on her referral. Well, he listened to my description and scheduled us for an endoscopy, on the slight chance he might have a rare disease. Yeah, you guessed it. Eosinophilic esophagitis. Causes food refusal. Incurable but treatable, thank goodness. Basically asthma of the esophagus. Natty's disease is at the cellular level, instigated by invisible non IgE mediated food allergies, which basically means we may never know WHAT he's allergic to. (long story) Well, because of this GI, I met the nutritionist, and because it was Duke, where all the tough cases go, well, she SPOKE MY LANGUAGE! It was like coming home! She got the oral sensitivities, the way he rejects things because they don't taste right, how hard it was to get him to drink his Pediasure or eat, everything! She spent about 20 minutes troubleshooting the issues with me, giving suggestions, and I walked out with a shopping list - Pediasure 1.5, Duocal, and periactin. Periactin was a distinct hit, increasing his appetite markedly. The Pediasure 1.5 had been a bust, but she taught me how to wean Nathaniel onto it by mixing it a little bit more each day into his regular Pediasure. And Duocal adds calories but no change in thickness, so we were a go. It was awesome. Less than 4 months later, we had kicked FTT to the curb! Whoo hoo! And since then, holy cow! He is a GROWING machine! He went from below the weight chart to 50th percentile in 1 year! He went from 10th percentile height to just 25th but we're making gains there too ... and the head. My little bobblehead's head is still growing. I don't size up his shirts based on his height - nah, I do it based on his head circumference getting through the danged hole! We were in 24 m pants in December and now, 3T. He's chunky, maybe even getting pudgy around his middle, having some real girth to him, which he has never had before. It's awesome. Nathaniel's feet are serious boats ... they grew 1 size in 3 months, which is twice as fast as a normal kid. Yeah, he's growing. While he's still not up to par on the eating scene, he can suck that Pediasure down like a champ. Love it. Love that I am no longer worried about calories, etc. Yay!
OK, the time is late and I have an early morning. Sometime soon, I hope to return to tell you more about my little wonder. Happy evening!
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