What the Doctor Ordered

Yesterday was Eamon's 4 month visit to the pediatrician. He (Eamon, not the pediatrician) was 16 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile), 26 inches (90th percentile), and his head was 17 inches (75th percentile). Unfortunately, both Aaron and I had to work, so my mother (Grandma) took Eamon to see the doctor. In a way, this was nice. Our pediatrician is Dr. Bolduc, who my mother used to work with years ago before she retired. She was a pediatric nurse practioner, which is wonderful to have as your full-time babysitter.

Anyway, I actually used to go to Dr. Bolduc back when we first moved here to Virginia, when I was about 11. I think when I was about 13 or 14, I finally switched over to a Family Physician because I was tired of sitting in the waiting room with snotty, shrieking two year olds. Nevertheless, I had liked Dr. Bolduc, so when it came time to pick a pediatrician for Eamon, he was our first choice. His practice has gotten bigger, which is really nice because if he's busy and Eamon's sick, Eamon can get into see someone, and we generally like all the doctors there.

So, my mom took Eamon. She said it was actually nice, getting to see Dr. Bolduc again. They caught up on old times, as well as admired her smiling and sweet grandson. Eamon loooooves Dr. Bolduc. Last time we went, Eamon smiled and smiled. I think maybe it's because even though Dr. Bolduc examines Eamon, he doesn't attempt to full-on hold him. He either keeps Eamon on the table or has me hold him, and one thing we know is that Eamon generally doesn't like people other than Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Oma, or Opa holding him for more than about 3 minutes.

While respecting Eamon's boundaries, Dr. Bolduc did the check-up and pronounced Eamon to be doing well. As for Eamon's allergies, Dr. Bolduc said that his cradle-cap looked better than last time, and the rash appeared to be mostly cleared up. He recommended keeping Eamon off solid foods until at least 6 months so that his digestive system has time to mature. When we do introduce solids, he also recommended that we introduce meats and vegetables first. I always had problems as a youngster with fruit (I still have problems with anything too acidic, especially citrus), so it would probably be best to just avoid those foods. We're also going to try making Eamon's solids at home so that if he breaks out, we know for sure it's due to the specific food and not to some sort of preservative they put in the processed baby food.

We also had my mom ask about Eamon's finger, which you may have noticed in some of the pictures. At first we thought that the red marking covering his pinky finger was a port-wine stain birthmark, but lately it's been looking more raised. Dr. Bolduc agreed, and this therefore makes it a strawberry hemangioma rather than a port-wine stain. If Aaron were writing this, he would have links to pages about hemangiomas, but I'm just going to tell you that it's a small tumor of blood vessels. In most cases, it resolves itself before the age of 10 and is nothing to worry about. Aaron, however, is a bit more wary because he had a hemangioma on his knee (which they also thought was a port-wine stain), and it ended up eating away at his knee cap until he had to have major surgery when he was 12.

Obviously, we don't want that to happen to Eamon. Dr. Bolduc said that since Eamon still has full-range of motion on his finger, he's comfortable just watching it for now, and so are we. When Eamon's about a year old, we might ask for a referral to see a pediatric plastic surgeon, but it would be better to wait until then to get a better diagnosis.

In other news, Mr. Eamon got another round of shots yesterday. He handled them pretty well. He needed Tylenol about every 4 hours yesterday to keep from getting too fussy, but he still ate and slept well. This morning, I can definitely tell he's not feeling the greatest. He usually wakes up full of energy, but today...eh. He's usually so go, go, go in the morning, and today he's just happy to sit on my lap. Well, I'm sure that he'll be back to his usual energetic self tomorrow.