Yesterday's Doctor Visit And Where To Go From Here

The doctor was WONDERFUL with baby JJ!! Checked him from head to toe. And even told me that he was doing well developmentally as well as nutritionally (as far as he could tell, there are certain signs of malnutrition and JJ showed the opposite of those signs).

We do not immunize, which the doctor said was a good thing because it allows us to rule that out immediately as there are so many bad things (formaldehyde, etc.) in immunizations that could be the culprit and could have made things worse (most of his patients are autistic children).

Now to the bad news, some thing is keeping baby JJ from growing. He is 16 months and 16 pounds. He is a tiny little thing and at this point we just have no clue as to why.

And that means a massive blood test. His veins are so tiny that they might collapse if his blood is not drawn perfectly. AND they need a large amount of blood to run all the tests needed. And because his veins are so tiny, it is best to do it all at once than come back again and again. SOOOOOoooooo, if you could PLEASE PRAY that we are able to find someone who has experience drawing blood from TINY babies. We appreciate it.

The good things about the blood test for allergies compared to the scratch test (which I went through several times growing up) are several:

Firstly, you don't have a baby with an itchy back who doesn't understand why his back itches and is miserable and crying.

Secondly, the scratch test (where they prick/scratch sections all over your back, apply small amounts of irritants to each prick and then wait for a reaction) really only tests your sensitivity to a small degree. The blood test can not only find what you are truly allergic to, but can find out what you are allergic to that you might not show an immediate reaction to (you remember the baby food books told you when introducing a new food wait 3-5 days for a reaction, well the blood tests finds out what those 3-5 day ones are).

Thirdly, you can be sensitive to something, but your reaction would not be physical, but emotional. Moms who have kids with gluten sensitivities (like two of my children do) KNOW that a certain food can make your child completely irritable and hyper.

I am so thankful to be able to see this new doctor and get this test done. It will allow me to know for certain what foods baby JJ can NOT have, so I can avoid those. But just as important is to know what foods he CAN have so I can add more foods to his diet (without fear) that will possibly help to bulk him up.