The Cannon Hackett Chronicle: More health concerns for Mr. Ben

Ben had his year-old pediatrician visit today (almost one whole month late), ending with a referral for hin to go see a speech therapist. Just what we needed-- another medical specialist for the little guy!

HUGS!

at Landa Park

His new stats are as follows: head circumference = 19.25 inches (95th percentile--still baby "big-head!"), height = 31 inches (75th percentile--quite tall, no surprises there), weight = 22 lb, 1 oz (25th percentile-- pretty low). His low weight wasn't too concerning to the doctor (since he's walking now and burning more calories). However, he has only gained one ounce since he was there over a month ago.

I also explained to the pediatrician that I have concerns about Ben's eating abilities; he loves putting food in his mouth, but seems to actually swallow almost none of if. Cleaning out his bib pocket at the end of a meal is a super gross and disappointing chore; it's full of pretty much every bit of everything that went into his mouth, just smooshed into slightly smaller, soggy pieces.

All of the other babies I know (who mostly have fewer teeth than Ben) completely ingest most of what goes into their mouth. Given Ben's lack of weight gain and trouble eating, the doctor told me not to push forward with the weaning process until we get his eating figured out.

The pediatrician and I also discussed how Ben doesn't say any words that seem to have a specific meaning, & the only sounds he consistently makes is a motorboat/car noise, "roaring", and sometimes it seems like he's trying to "meow" like our cats. By the age of one babies are usually saying at least two words consistently and make more sounds with specific meaning.

The pediatrician wasn't really worried about his lack of speech yet, but that combined with his apparent trouble swallowing, and lack of weight gain all added up to her giving us a referral to go see the speech therapist at the hospital. ) Apparently speech therapists deal with anything to do with eating and swallowing as well as speaking. We also may need to get a different "swallow study"/medical test done at the hospital... so disheartening (especially since we just switched insurance companies so will have to meet a whole new deductible-- the third one we've had to meet since he was born!).

Anyway, other than trouble with eating, Ben is a delightful, happy little boy.