Bryce Was Supposed To Be My Easy Kid

Well, we had another disappointing visit to the pediatrician today. Both kids had to go this time. Rylie had to go for a follow up on her ears, and hopefully to re-do her blood work from the scare we had back in January. Bryce had to go for his 18 month well check. I was nervous about taking both kids by myself because I knew there would be crying, but Rylie was such a big girl and did so well that it actually went pretty well. She didn't cry AT ALL, and showed Bryce how brave she was. She was awesome!

I'll start with the news on Rylie since hers isn't all that bad. This was the second time we tried to get that blood work re-done. Last time she had a low grade fever and an ear infection, so the doctor didn't want to do it because any inflammation could make her sed rate high. Well, her ears are still filled with fluid, so we couldn't do it again this time. Rylie certainly didn't mind this. Her ears aren't bothering her at all, so we're just doing the watch and wait thing, but her pediatrician thinks she may be next in line for adenoid removal. I'm not going to worry about that right now, though, because otherwise she is healthy and doesn't seem to get sick that much. I would still obviously like to get that blood work re-done, but there is no sense in doing it when she does have some kind of infection going on. It will do nothing but cause more worry.

And now on to Bryce...

First off, here are his stats at 18 months:
Height - 32" (50th %)
Weight - 24lbs 2oz (25th %)
Head Circumference - 50cm (95th %)

I am kind of surprised at the first two. His legs are so short that all of his shorts almost look like pants, so his torso must be longer to make him average height. I would have thought that percentile would have been lower. And to me, he looks hearty, and much bigger than his sister at relative ages, so it surprised me that he was below average in weight. His head measurement doesn't surprise me. It's just all those brains in there!

The good news from his visit is that he is right on track developmentally. He isn't talking much, but he is really trying lately. He says new words every day. The doctor thinks that now that his adenoids are out his vocabulary will start to take off, since he won't constantly have fluid in his ears. His motor skills are excellent too.

The bad news is that both of his ears are still full of fluid, so we have to start antibiotic drops. She said that the tissue around where the adenoids were is so inflamed that his body is ridding itself of all of that "junk". He also has thrush, which may have contributed to his "below-average" weight. The pediatrician thinks it is in his esophagus and that is why he doesn't want to eat. We have been pushing yogurt since the ENT first told us about it last week, and now we're adding Florastor twice a day.

Wait, there's more! As she was checking his "boy parts" I could see her nose wrinkling up and she was spending an awful lot of time down there. I said "ok, now, he is supposed to be my easy kid, please don't tell me there is something else we have to worry about." Yeah, Bryce has a hernia. Which means another surgery. We'll be seeing a urologist sometime in the near future.

Holy crap this never ends. I hate to see my kids go through this nonsense time after time.