January 25: Isla's Growth

Here's the latest in Isla's growth saga.

We took her in today to get her ears re-checked and to check on her height and weight.  She weighed 21 pounds, 8 ounces (25%), which is up from the 20 pounds, 12 ounces (19%) she weighed three weeks ago after she had been sick.  I was pretty sure she had gained all that weight back because she has been eating everything in sight lately.  I'm really not worried about her weight at all; her tummy and legs are so chubby.  She has lost some weight when is sick and loses her appetite, but she seems to have no problem gaining it back.

The last time her height was measured was on December 21, and she was 30 inches long (5%).  Today they measured her at 30.1 inches (2%).  That made her growth chart look like this; she is just barely staying on the chart. 

 But then, our doctor came in and measured her again.  She came up with a measurement just over 31 inches, which is a very big difference.  An inch goes a long way at this stage and would move her up to 10% on the growth chart!  That would mean her curve is going up again, and that is what we want!  At the end of the appointment, I'm not sure which measurement they counted as the "official" length.  But it seems like that should matter, and I'm kind of annoyed that the measurements are so different.  I wish they would have taken one more measurement and then averaged the three!

In the end, our doctor wants a second opinion.  She says she has never seen a case quite like this (I remember our physical therapist saying the same thing about Isla...she is just unique, I guess!).  The doctor has diagnosed her as "failure to thrive" because of how much she has dropped on the growth chart, specifically in her height. 

But normally kids who are labeled "failure to thrive" are really skinny and in the lowest percentile for weight.  Isla is not too skinny, and while her weight curve has dropped quite a bit, she is still maintaining a fairly healthy weight.  Her head circumference remains normal and constant, which often is not the case in other "failure to thrive" cases.  The only big area of concern is Isla's height (and even that is up for debate with the different measurements they took today!).  Our doctor says she has never seen a case (at least at Isla's age) when the "failure to thrive" seems to be isolated to height.

In the end, our doctor is sending Isla's charts to a local pediatric endocrinologist.  That doctor will take a look at all these numbers and decide what (if anything) we should do next.  So, we just have to wait and see some more!   I just love playing the "wait and see" game...don't you?  I should be getting pretty good at it by now!!

We also decided to go ahead and set up a speech therapy evaluation for her.  So we are waiting to hear from Early Intervention about when that will be.  Isla has been doing better with her speech over the past week or so.  I would say she has a consistent five words now, and she has added a few more sounds to her repertoire.  But, that is still way behind where she should be, so we decided to go ahead with the evaluation.  I am feeling better about her speech abilities though, and I'm hoping that if we do start some speech therapy, it will be short lived.