Directives from the Doctor

We took Jude in for his 18M well-child visit with Dr. Jack yesterday. It was a very different experience than previous doctor's visits. First of all, Jude REMEMBERED that the doctor's office is where he gets pokies and other unpleasant things happen to him. From the moment he entered the examination room, he started shaking his head, muttering "No, No, No" and clinging to me. I think this is probably pretty common, because Dr. Jack entered cautiously and tried to make friends immediately by giving Jude some stickers. Jude was unimpressed for the most part, although he was distracted by a bag of dried apples and enjoyed reading "Sheep In A Jeep" despite the surroundings.

Here are his stats from this visit:

• Height: 35.5 inches (99th percentile)
• Weight: 30 pounds, 5 ounces (92nd percentile)

If you compare these numbers to previous data points, you can see that Jude's height has been consistent at the 99th percentile, but his weight is creeping up the percentile ladder. He is not overweight at this point, since he is more or less height/weight proportional, but the doctor is concerned that if this trend continues, he could be overweight by the time he is two. He recommended a few things. First, we will do another weight check in three months when we take the new baby in for her two-week appointment. The hope is that he will stay on or below the 92nd percentile line in the next three months. Second, we are supposed to be a little bit tougher about not giving Jude extra milk. We have to limit him to no more than 20 ounces a day, since the extra milk he is getting is most likely causing the weight creep.

In order to decrease his constant requests for milk (and for other reasons as well), Dr. Jack also recommended that we transition Jude from bottles to sippy cups for his milk over the next month or so. This should reduce the amount that he drinks just for comfort sucking and will also be better for his teeth. The doctor said it will be hard to make this transition after the new baby comes, and it is very important to be off bottles by the age of two.

We're also supposed to limit Jude's Elmo watching to one showing a day. We've gotten a little bit lazy and have been letting him watch a part of the DVD a few times a day just to keep him occupied while we get some things done or when we're too tired to do any active play (he asks to watch it all the time). Dr. Jack said that any more than about 30 minutes a day can start to affect language development and is not recommended at this age. Jude is not too happy about this, but I'm hoping that after a few days of us being consistent about this new rule he will understand that we mean it.

Otherwise, Jude seems to be in perfect health and he passed the 18-month developmental screen with flying colors. There were no developmental concerns at all. And the mosquito bites from Mexico that were causing us some anxiety seem to be healing up just fine, so there's no need to worry about them. Jude did have to have one shot, and he was not at all happy about it. I guess the days of blithely ignoring shots at the doctor's office are over for now!