When Baby Chen was born, he was the same birth weight as my oldest. For the first few months he followed along on his designated Holy Growth Chart Curve, but then suddenly…..he fell off.
He fell off so much, that we realized we had a weight-gain problem on our hands and took him to the doctor. Keep in mind this was my third kid, so I wasn’t too hyper about growth charts any longer. In fact, I skipped some of his early “weight checks” because I knew he was growing fine, he was meeting his developmental milestones, and his appetite was great. And I was very laid-back by this stage. (I would never have skipped an opportunity to put my first baby on the scale, to contrast.)
So imagine my surprise when the pediatrician acted like my baby was about to die, and I was an unfit parent. A big fat “UH? WHAAA?”
Baby Chen was small. I knew we’d developed some feeding problems (he’s a picky little guy, for instance, and I knew he probably wasn’t taking in enough calories. He also had a reflux/puking problem). But apparently his length and head circumference were ALL WRONG! As I said to the doctor, “I know he’s too skinny, that’s why I’m here.” To which she replied, “HE SHOULD BE LONGER TOO!“
Okay. First of all, he was always shorter than my other babies. Second of all, he’s just friggin TINY. Thirdly, if you look at any growth charts for Chinese babies, their heads are smaller than American babies.
So I mentioned this. “You know, his father is Chinese and everyone in his family is really small. Could that be a factor here?“
To which she replied: “NO! I have other Oriental patients, and they are bigger than this!” [This right here is a sign you should not ignore. If the doctor is still using the term "oriental" that is a clue that they are older and may be a bit out of touch.]
To which I said: “Okay, so is there ANY possibility that he’s just a small kid?“
To which she replied: “No.”
So then I descended into hysteria.
She sent us for immediate bloodwork. She sent us to a kidney specialist. She sent us to a pediatric gastroentorologist. The GI doc sent us for x-rays, ultrasounds of the head and abdomen, and more bloodwork.
I became insane. I lost my mind for 2 weeks. I did nothing but hover over Baby Chen, forcing high-fat and high-calorie foods down his throat non-stop for 8 hours a day. I was so desperate because my milk was drying up and he wouldn’t take formula – he hated the taste of it, and I don’t blame him. Formula tastes like shit.
I finally put him on high-calorie pediasure, which tasted like a chocolate shake to him. He loved it, so I poured it down his throat by the bottle. He was an extremely happy boy, as he pigged out for weeks on anything he wanted.
He gained weight, and started filling out. But I sobbed nightly, as I envisioned every possible disorder he could have, from kidney failure to celiac disease to dwarfism. That’s right – I went so bonkers, one night in my googling madness I briefly wondered if he was a DWARF.
There is nothing that induces madness in a mother faster than HINTING that there is something terribly wrong with her baby.
More in part 3…
