Well Baby!

I took Taylor for her well baby exam yesterday afternoon. She weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs 1.5 oz., and she's 27 inches long. She's in the 10th percentile for both of those, but she's on the same curve she was at 6 months so the doc says she's doing great, she's just petite. I was really hoping she would hit 20 pounds by the time she turned 1 (can you believe she's almost 1?????) so we could get her in a front facing car seat. She's grown really tired of looking at the back seat.

We also have some milk issues that I brought up with the pediatrician. Basically, it seems that milk products turn her skin red, and sometimes give her hives wherever it touched, but as long as it doesn't get ON her skin, it doesn't bother her. We had attempted to give her a supplement of milk based formula and without her even eating any, she broke out in a rash where the formula had gotten on her cheeks. Yogurt does the same, it gets a little bit red, and maybe a hive if it gets on her face while trying to feed her, and the big one was Gerber yogurt drops, a little dehydrated yogurt treat. They almost immediately turned her very red, and gave her several hives where she had touched them to her face. She seems okay with cheese, but it's a bit easier to get into her without touching her face. With all of the products, as soon as you wipe it off, it goes away within 10 or 20 minutes. She doesn't seem to show any intestinal upset with any of these.

So, I brought this up with the ped. and she said that it's not a true milk allergy, but a contact dermatitis from milk. She also said to continue giving her milk products, just try not to get it on her face, and of course hold off on straight whole milk until she's at least 1. Ehhh?????

Since she hasn't been sleeping so great lately, I've decided to do my own trial. I'm cutting her off of milk products, and I'm avoiding milk products for 2 weeks. Irritibilaty can be a symptom of an allergy (of course so can teething), and she's definitely irritable. I figure it wont hurt either of us to go milk free for a couple of weeks to see if there are any behavior/sleep changes and then I can start slowly introducing the mild milk products back and see what happens. We started today, so far, so good.

I also went back to the dentist today about the crown he did before we left. It's been bothering me still and he said that he thought I might need a root canal in that tooth. Essentially, it had a crack, and when he burred down the tooth to fit the crown it likely cracked from the vibration of the drill to the root causing it to be sensitive. I wasn't convinced, so I had him check it again today. He explained it a little more in detail, particularly where I was feeling pain. He said I could put it off maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe 10 years. He said it really depends on what I want to live with pain wise, but that it's not emergent, but he recommends doing it. After some thought I decided while I'm not in a lot of pain now (only when I eat or drink certain hot/cold things and it gets up on that side), if I'm going to most likely need one anyway, why live with any pain? So next Thursday I go in for a root canal. Ugh.

I felt bad that I went back to hear him tell me the same thing twice, but seeing as this is my first crown (and will be my first root canal) my experience hasn't been so great. He completely understood and said he'd be more than happy to refer me to an endodontist for a 2nd opinion, and he could dig up some studies for me. I told him that was okay, that I'm sure he's right. After I got home I did do some research anyway and found that it is true that about 10% of cracked teeth that get crowned result in needing a root canal anyway. Interesting stuff!

I'm off to bed, I'm goign for a walk in the mornign with my WW friend, and then we go to Drew's ALS graduation, yay!!!! Apparently he's in the "smart class", the Honor Flight. I guess thats the title they get if they get the best grades. So proud of him! Of course, Monday he starts back to work, on 12 hour shifts! BOO!!! Hopefully they aren't on them for long!