Henry is 13 Months
This is his “who, me?” face when I call his name and tell him not to touch that…
The little Zoomer is “go-go-go!” and weighs 17lbs 12oz today! His favorite book to “read” that he’s reaching for is the “That’s Not My Puppy” book. We discovered his first tooth during bath time on September 8th, and he has a big interest in eating solid foods now.
This little boy has developed tan legs and feet from sun-drenched afternoons being pushed in the stroller.
Most of the photos of him lately are blurry—he just moves so quickly to the next thing, and my camera can’t keep up with him. He unplugs things from the wall outlets, dumps all the toy baskets, and enjoys looking out the window or hiding in the drapes.
He doesn’t know his own strength, and is able to push over his 3-tiered medicine cart full of items. When he’s done with whatever he’s eating he likes to throw it onto the floor.
He has to hold my hands when he’s eating or sleeping to reassure himself that I’m not going anywhere. My walking out of his view is traumatic for him, so I’ve been finding more creative ways to keep him with me.
If I go to the bathroom, I put him in a bucket placed on the floor with me. If I do laundry and want to keep him contained, he stays in a laundry basket with a blanket and some toys. While washing dishes or vacuuming, I wear him in a baby carrier on my chest. He watches me from his crib as I prepare his bottles. We are rarely apart!
It’s around Henry’s one year birthday so there were many medical appointments, follow up visits, and milestones this month.
Respiratory
We saw the Pulmonologist for a checkup on Henry’s BPD (chronic lung disease). He looks great! Doctor switched him to an albuterol inhaler for when needed so that he doesn’t need to take a steroid, and wants to check back on him during winter.
Cardiology
The day before Henry’s birthday we saw his cardiologist at the new office in Lehi. Henry was super wiggly so it took a while to do his check. At one point we also brought in a technician to help distract, lights flashed and music played on a screen, a tablet showed nursery rhymes, I held him, and a teether was going—it was way more than Baby could handle. The winning method was strapping him halfway in the car seat so that part of his chest was uncovered for the ultrasound machine.
The cardiologist confirmed that the ASD (small hole in the heart) is still there, still small, and it’s not bigger. It creates a little blood flow leaking into the other side of the heart, but not enough to enlarge that other side. No effect on his development or feeding. All the chambers look good. All we can really do is wait and watch it. Doctor is not worried or concerned at all about it, and says it just needs more time to close completely. We will follow up in 18 months.
Pediatrician
Two days later we saw the Pediatrician who was happy to receive the cardiologist’s report. Henry weighed 17lbs 10oz, got up to date on vaccinations with 3 shots, and meds helped us get ahead of the fevers and pain. He checked off some of the things on the 12-month development survey, but he’s actually only 9 months corrected.
Feeding Therapy + Teeth
Two days after, we saw Henry’s Feeding Therapist. She had him try veggie straws and dried mango. Now that he’s over a year old she encouraged us to practice with solids multiple times a day. Since then he has gained so much confidence and dexterity at his high chair. He has tried different flavored puffs (peach is a favorite) and lil crunchies, yogurt melts, fresh raspberries or blueberries, spoonfuls of ice cream, peanut butter with ritz crackers, homemade waffles, and more. He even drinks water with a straw from his sippy cup!
It helps that his first tooth (front bottom) has broken the surface of his gums!
He is ready to wean from the thickener. The therapist is encouraging us to try to also wean him off the g-tube before he turns 2 years old to prevent long-term tube dependency and give him the best feeding outcomes.
Urology
We saw Henry’s Urologist in Lehi. His hydrocele (fluid in scrotum) has resolved completely and his urologist says no need for scheduled follow up or surgery. Baby looks great and we have one less specialist doctor to see!
Early Intervention
Our pediatrician and BPD doctors recommended Early Intervention. I reached out to Kids Who Count, the same wonderful organization that helped us with F’s speech and language delay. Henry got evaluated and qualified for occupational therapy (for his feeding issues) monthly. The nurse came and got all of his medical history down. She determined that he has no auditory issues, though he was so wiggly through his vision test that I’m not sure if she was able to complete it.
Gastroenterology
The GI doctors aren’t available, scheduled out until next year. We’d like to see them to adjust his feeding schedule if needed and make a long term plan for the g-tube so we can look towards getting him weaned.
We changed out his g-tube button for the first time by ourselves at home, which was nerve wracking. He has grown, from a 1.2cm size to 1.5cm.
Nutritionist
Baby is gaining weight consistently. The plan is to wean Henry off the thickener, and increase his solids plus calorie-pack them (basically upping the fats- e.g. whole fat Greek yogurt instead of nonfat) until he turns 12 months. We want to see if we can lower or remove his need for an overnight feed OR all daytime feeds, which will help us with weaning him off the g-tube. We can switch to a more calorie dense Pediatric formula once he turns 12 (or up to 18 months) so that the feeding tube volume can decrease until we wean him.
