17 May 2011

1 Year Doctor Visit



Molly and I went to visit Dr. Havlik today for her 1 year check-up. Here is the report:

Height: 30.25 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile)
Head: 45 cm (50th percentile)

So first of all, I like Dr. Havlik, but it seems like every visit has something strange. The percentiles above are my own approximations from reading the charts. Today, I was all worried because I thought Molly was shrinking. Her growth charts said she was only in the 50th and 80th percentile for weight and height, respectively. That's okay except that it's a pretty big change from her last appointments. I didn't realize until I got home that Dr. Havlik gave us the wrong growth charts. Ours are for some 6 month old baby named Tess. Poor Tess's mom is probably having a heart attack because her baby is giant. Oh dear. James caught the mistake. I'm dumb.

Anyway, back to Molly . . . developmentally she is doing everything she is supposed to. She can pass things from one hand to another, point at something she wants, say mama and dada (though not necessarily on queue), stand up from sitting while holding on to something, etc.

She is supposed to switch over to whole milk now instead of formula. She is also supposed to take a Vitamin D supplement in a liquid form because kids don't get enough Vitamin D from Vitamin D milk. Does anyone else have a pediatrician who says this?

Molly is also supposed to be off a bottle and eating table foods by 15 months. I guess that will be our summer project.

She also had 4 vaccines today - MMR, Chicken Pox, DTAP, and Prevnar.
She will get 2 more vaccines at her 15 month appointment - HIB and Hep A.

The only really weird part about today's visit was that Molly had to get blood drawn, or at least attempted to get blood drawn. That's what the shocking picture above shows. Dr. Havlik says there is a new recommendation that 1 year olds get tested for anemia and an iron count. Molly, however, is too old to get pricked in the heal anymore and blood has to be drawn from her arm like an adult. You can imagine the terror in the restrained little girl as the poor phlebotomists tried both arms and then looked at her hand before telling me I would have to go to Primary's to do it.

I couldn't do it today. We had already been to the doctor's long enough and I had to get back to work. I'm not sure when we will make it to Primary's (if at all). I am considering not even doing it. What are the chances that she is really anemic? I don't know. Do any of you out there have a recent 1 year old who has had this done? I need to look it up on the internet. Is Dr. Havlik crazy or is this for real?

It was stressful. Shots. Blood drawn. Banging her head into the cabinet while crawling around on the floor waiting for the nurse to come back in and do the vaccines (of course right after Dr. Havlik have given us the safety lecture for the umpteenth time).

Oh well. At least she won't get the measles.

That's the report. Molly is a good baby. She is very alert and content most of the time, though not always in the presence of strangers. She is smart and very conscious of everything around her. I love her!!