Hi everyone,
It has been a while and i’m glad to be back and active! Much has happened and i’m not sure where to start. Many questions to ask too and was really hoping i can use the WHS network here to get some answers. So here goes the update!
Weight and Height
Isabella is around 81cm tall and weighs 9kg. She’s been growing taller but her weight has actually gone down. Her highest point was around 9.8kg and that was when she was 15-16 months. It plateaued for a bit then slowly went down. She eats a lot so were a bit unsure why. Our dietician has added Polycal into her diet, so we sprinkle a scoop over her brekkie and lunch. More about food later though. Our paediatrician says it a normal thing to go through when they hit the toddler stages but we still keep monitoring her too make sure she doesn’t lose any more.
Questions…
-Has this ever happened to your lil ones?
Food
She eats three main meals a day and 2 snacks. For breakfast she eats and loves her blueberry porridge mixed with formula, she eats that 75% of the time. We’ve tried other things like scrambled eggs, rice porridge, bananas and all types of fruits but she seems to really like the blueberry base. SO i end up adding the eggs, bananas, and all types of other stuff into it and she doesn’t seem to notice 😉 For lunch we have lots of yummy savory foods from lamb, to beef , masala chicken to cheese and she especially likes avocados. Dinner is quite similar. Snacks we give her fruits and yogurt and sometimes chocolate 🙂 All her food textures range from smooth to textured She still doesnt like to chew her food but i know that she can because she bites her crackers and cookies. But i guess biting is different then chewing though…hmmmm. In her foods we mix a few things in to get the calories to its densest. We put either ghee, olive oil, polycal and creme for fats sake and the occasional echenacea for health.
Questions….
– What do you feed your toddlers?
– Any tips on promoting more chewing?
Milestones
Gross motor- Isabella cruises on her walker but she needs the support to walk. She can stand by the sofa and can pull up to stand from a squat and lil chair. She makes quite a good 360 turn on her belly if i use my iphone as the motivator. She pushes up very well with her hands while on belly. We just got her the theratogs to help her stability and it seems to help her a lot. Shes very keen on moving around so we are very optimistic that it will be sooner as opposed to later that i can hold her hand for a walk in the park soon 🙂 I cant wait!!!!!
Fine motor- She still doesnt do the pincer with her left hand. She does the palmer grip a lot. She bangs on buttons as opposed to pressing with her index. Shes got a good grip but were still working on more precise movements. Ummm..not sure what else to update on fine motor…heehee
Cognitive- She definitely knows what she wants and doesn’t want. Be it food, a toy or wanting to be picked up. These simple acknowledgements makes me sooo happy. when she first reached her arms out to me i was seriously close to tears. Happy Happy! She now touches the ipad screnn as opposed to trying to flip the whole thing, and she especially loves the fireworks app and the vegas slot games…haha!
Therapy
We still get weekly PT and ST. Bi weekly OT and Vision therapy. We work with her a lot at home on the floor and so simple yoga poses with her. She really loves music too so we wiggly and jiggle and dance a lot too!
Seizures
We’ve had a few trips to the hospital due to febrile triggered status seizures this year. What we have actually learned this year is that Isabella’s febrile seizures are only stopped by phenobarbitone via IV. I’m not too sure about any other parts of the world, but here in hk, if a child is having a prolonged seizure they have 5 steps that they take (please don’t quote me as I’m just recollecting my memory here) Step 1 is rectal valium (we usually give her this straight away when her seizure starts as we are calling the ambulance) Step 2 is another anti confusion via IV, step 3 is then another load of the same, then step 4 is the phenobarbitone, then step 5 is induced coma. Because the fact that Isabella’s seizures always stopped at stage 4, the drs in ICU wrote us a letter to keep with us at all times stating that whichever A&E we are at in HK that we skip all stages and go straight to step 4. After that letter has been issued to us, we’ve had 2 unfortunate cases of febrile status, we took this letter with us and the drs at the A&E did what was written and the seizures stopped. Honestly, time wise , the seizures were still considered long as it’s very hard to get the IV line in, but the benefit of this knowledge is that Isabella is back to herself by the next day as opposed to being so drugged up and out of it for 2-4 days like before.
Kidneys
We just did another deflux procedure a few days ago to try to bring down her already downgraded reflux grading. We have our check up in a few months time so i’ll keep you posted on that.
Strabismus
We are a go for surgery next month to correct her eyes. Her right eye and sometimes her left likes to fly out sometimes. Were optimistic that the correction will help her fine motor skills and everything else as our dr said when the eye flies out everything is 2d.
Questions…
– Any experiences?
And a final summary of knicks and knacks…
Our Isabella smiles soooo much more now!! She giggles and grins, and wrinkles her nose when playing…so cute!! I remember writing about her before and i was quite uneasy as she never smiled before. Was so worried then…heehee. Another funny thing is that she doesn’t have a lot of hair, how about your lil ones? I can go on and on…but i’ll save it for next time. 🙂
Anyways, sorry about the long write up! Here are a few pictures of Isabella! Can’t wait to hear about your preciuos ones too 🙂 Wishing all of you and happy and healthy new year!
Vroom Vroom….
Birthday earrings!!
Theratogs
Birthday cake!!
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Hi, just wanted to give you my thoughts as a WHS parent of a 13 year old child. Amariah started walking at 2 1/2 yrs old, before that she crawled by sitting on her butt and using one leg to advance her. She never crawled on her knees. I used to feed Mari lots of grapes, because she liked them, to promote chewing when she was small. She still picks things up with the tips of her fingers as though she really doesnt want to touch it, she doesnt bend her fingers although she can when trying a different task. Amariah knows and can understand everything. If I tell her to go to the grocery store and get oranges she would be able to do it but she wouldnt be able to drive the car, understand to stop at stop signs or red lights or that she has to park or pay for the oranges when she gets there. It almost seems and I hate to say this but she just isnt interested enough in some things or she just doesnt care about most things unless it gives her specific satisfication. The only things she really loves to do is be out and about, specifically in the car, she LOVES to eat and this should be #1, she loves music #2 everything else she doesnt mind doing but i feel as its just part of the routine. If it were up to her she would listen to music and eat all day and night long.
She grew out of her seizures i believe around 5 yrs old, cant totally remember as i write this and she never had kidney or vision problems. She developed very fast (body and bo).
I can go on and on also so any specific questions let me know…bottom line is Amariah is the sweetest happiest child on earth. Everyone that comes in contact with her says that there is just something about her that makes your spirit feel good.