Alex's 15-Month Checkup

So recently Alex had his 15-month checkup (albeit when he was 16.5 months). It's always fun to go to the doctor's for a checkup and see how much he's grown. When he was 14.5 months, they measured him at 24 pounds and 32 1/8 inches (though they didn't measure correctly. He was actually 31.5 inches). At this appt, he measured at almost 26 pounds and 33 1/8 (but again I'm pretty sure he's actually 32.5). So he grew an inch in two months, which is pretty good. That puts him in the 75% for height compared to other boys his age, which is pretty exciting. With Aaron not being that tall (5'7"), I really want Alex to get my family's tall genes and be around 5'10" (my grandpa was 6'2", as well as my uncle, and my brother and dad are around 5'10". It's just easier for guys, I think, when they're not too short.

In the appt., I also mentioned to the doctor about Alex having a peanut allergy, and was surprised by his response. He was pretty much like, Well, then don't feed him anything with peanuts. That's it. I thought Alex would need to see an allergist and be tested to see what his severity to peanuts was, but he was very nonchalant about it, especially since Alex didn't have a life-threatening reaction to peanuts. I was like, "But shouldn't he be tested for other allergies?" You know, since if you have one allergy you're more likely to have others. The doctor was like, "No. These tests aren't always accurate, so just watch him to see if he has any reactions to other foods." Okay, but some aren't that easy to tell, like soy. It's not like you're going to give your kid straight soy, and soy is found in so many products. And sometimes reactions aren't so severe that you would definitely notice. But whatever.

I wasn't impressed by the fact that he didn't seem to know what the latest research was on peanut allergies either. I know he's not an allergist, but being a pediatrician, you'd think you'd keep up on common things like this. He said that repeated exposure to peanuts could make the allergy worse. I asked, If that were true than why was it that recent studies were desensitizing kids with allergies by giving them more peanuts, not less? He seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. And he's like, "Yeah, but there is no treatment for it." And I'm like, "Yeah, but they're working on one and are hoping to have one developed in the next few years." He kind of stared at me blankly. I'm just like, whatever. I think am more up to date on what's going on with peanut allergy research than he is at this point, since I did so much research on it after realizing that Alex was allergic.

I also asked if I need an epi-pen for him and he said I don't because he didn't have that severe of a reaction. Let's hope that he's right. I mean all he did was get hives and throw up, so hopefully his allergy is not that severe, but I thought it might be good just in case. He said that I was more likely to hurt him trying to administer it and doing it wrong. I guess that might be true if I were to overreact and give it to him when he wasn't even having an anaphylactic response, but I don't think that's true if he were. Still, he's probably right in that Alex probably won't have that strong of a response since he didn't after a whole spoonful of peanut butter. Let's just hope not.

Alex also got some immunizations including one for the chicken pox. He had a rash when we went to the doctor's office. I thought it might be connected to the fever he'd had on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, and the doctor said it was. He said because of the immune system being so new and not having experience dealing with illnesses, children at this age will sometimes break out in a rash when their fever breaks. He said it could be roseola, but that other viruses can cause a similar rash. I hadn't noticed any symptoms besides the fever and wasn't worried since the ibuprofen I gave him took down the fever both days. I was glad that I hadn't made a special appt for that since it wasn't a big deal.

So far he hasn't had any reactions to the immunizations (it's been 9 days since), so that's good. No fever and no rash, which the doctor said might occur. And Alex does so well with the shots. He scrunches up his face and whimpers a little, but he is fine pretty much by the time they put the Band-Aids on. So he's growing well. It's been fun to see him grow!