"4" month checkup

We went to the pediatrician's yesterday for Charlie's "4" month checkup, even though he is 5 months old now. We are a month off because of him getting his immunizations a little late in the NICU. It was an aggravating visit for me because I did not feel like the doctor gave us the time I wanted and I felt very rushed trying to ask all the questions I had. Plus, he still isn't willing to fully take Charlie on as his own patient it seems. I asked him about continuing the actigal (the medication for his jaundice) and even though his last bilurubin count was only 0.5, he would not make the call to stop the medication. Instead he wants me to contact his GI doctor and ask him. BUT, the GI doctor isn't even the one who prescribed it - Dr. Marr in the NICU started him on it. He was already taking the actigal when we met with GI and had his endoscopy done. So, it is rather aggravating.

He did give us the all clear to start Charlie on a little bit of cereal, but we have decided to hold off until he is 6 months. We do not have a real reason to start him on cereal yet - he is gaining weight (almost 15 lbs now!!) and his reflux has been managed pretty well with the zantac. And we are going to try to follow the Super Baby Foods Diet, which recommends starting at 6 months because the cereal is very high in fiber and his system may be too immature to handle it before 6 months. So, another 3 weeks or so and we will start some cereal and see how that goes.

I was not able to get a clear answer about the soy formula and possible dairy allergy. As I mentioned before, because of the small chance that Vince could have passed his dairy allergy on to Charlie, we started with isomil soy-based formula. I wanted to know what the plan was for testing the waters and seeing if he is indeed allergic to dairy. Basically, the gist of what I got was we will not worry about it now and then when we do move forward we will start by slowly introducing it to him through an easy to digest formula. AGAIN, I think there is a misunderstanding that this is not an INTOLERANCE that I am concerned with, it is an ALLERGY. But my head was spinning by this point and the confusion did not dawn on me until I was on my way home. We will just bring it up at our next appointment and hopefully he will not be in such a hurry to move on to the next patient! :-)

Charlie did get his second set of immunizations and finished the rotavirus series. He was not happy with the shots, but loves the rotavirus syrup. He slept really well all yesterday and last night and is napping again now, so I think he is just sleeping off the stress!

Vince took our nephew Emanuel to the Chiefs baseball game last night and the pictures were so cute that I couldn't help but post a couple! He will be 3 in September and is a great little boy. His latest thing is his Batman alter-ego. When he wears his Batman cape, he refuses to answer to anything but "Batman". He came over and hung out with Charlie and Vince and couple weekends ago while I was in Rochester for the day and had a great time helping Charlie play.

"Are you sure I can't go touch the horse, Uncle Bince?"

(No, that is not a typo - - he does call him "Bince")

Oh the DIMPLES!! :-)

"Why are you touching my stuff Batman??"

"Here Baby Charlie, let me show you how this works..."

Charlie's two newest infatuations: his mobile and his feet!