Developmental Pedi Appointment

Actual Age: 28 months
Adjusted Age: 24 months

Truman had his first developmental pediatrician appointment today. We were referred to get another opinion on the in-patient therapy issue. There were so many things we liked about this appointment. The doc was on the same page as our pedi, which is basically, "hello, this is a 23-weeker. Things take time. Back off therapists on how fast you expect results." She said that if Truman is growing and making progress in outpatient therapy, then it's Ok to wait to the summer to go inpatient.

She did lots of testing of non-verbal cognition and she that he is at around 22 months (about two months behind his adjusted age) in most areas and is 30 months in receptive speech. Can you believe that??? We thought he seemed to be on par with other kids in that area, but it is really hard to tell. Of course, verbal and self-care (i.e. feeding and some fine motor skills), she had him at around 10-12 months like most docs have said. I found it interesting that in her view, signs are equal to spoken words in "counting" words. On that note, he has added the word "bye" and the signs for help, shoes, and his name in the last couple of weeks. "Mama" has also resurfaced three or four times in the last couple of weeks.

The coolest part is that she said if she didn't have the NICU discharge summary, she would not have believed us that he was a 23-weeker or that he had bi-lateral IVHs. She said he was doing better than most of her 26- and 27-weekers. And, she made us feel really good as parents, when she told us that she couldn't give us any advice -- to just keep on doing what we were doing because it is working.

We have made a lot of progress in the last month or so on eating. He seems to be better controlling the urge to vomit. He has been able to add cheese, goldfish crackers, and sugar cookies to the diet. Although he struggles and vomits with them sometimes, he is doing better and seems to be gaining some better control of stopping the retching once it starts. Thicker, non-crunchy foods still seem to be a no-go, but he does seem more willing to try as of late.

After all the worry and trauma of last month's diagnoses and push to go inpatient, I feel like we have gotten back to more reasonable expectations by spending time with the big-picture practitioners and not just the small-picture therapists. It takes a village with this kid. Also, Truman really seems to be thriving this last month and moving forward in many ways. It's a good holiday!