4 Year and 2 1/2 Year Checkups

The kids had check ups today. Sean had his 4 year check up (yea, a month and a half late) and Maddy had an appointment mainly to talk about the constipation problem she had and us going dairy free.

We'll start with stats: Sean is 28lbs, 36in. Maddy is 29lbs, 37in.
The fun thing about having kids the same size is they have fun mixing up their clothes:


Sean is below the curve on the growth chart but keeping up with the curve. His growth in the last month or so has slightly increased..slightly faster than the curve. Given the fact that in that time he had a few vomiting spells, that's awesome!! He had labs done for iron and lead levels and hearing and sight tests. He passed the sight test just fine and refused to take the hearing test. Got to love a stubborn 4 year old!

Maddy is doing great: about 50% for weight and almost 75% for height. The doctor does not think she has an allergy to dairy because constipation was her only symptom and he doesn't think it's lactose intolerance because she would have had the opposite reaction. What he thinks it is is how her body is reacting to dairy proteins. He suggested to continue what we're doing for now; no obvious dairy and not worried about hidden dairy and dairy in things like store bought cookies and such. When she's completely potty trained he suggested to start very slowly adding dairy to see if she can handle it in small amounts: starting with 1 very small serving a day and adding more after a week and so on.

They both also had 2 shots each. Let me just say too, I love our pediatrician. He's been great with doing a delayed vaccine schedule and didn't seem phased at all that I turned down the flu and chicken pox vaccine and will be delaying MMR vaccine even further. I asked him when he wanted to see Jellybean and he asked me where I'd be delivering. Me saying home didn't phase him either. All in all, a great visit. Sean goes to see the endo tomorrow morning. I expect it to be a great visit.


Stay up to date by following me on twitter @MamaDaniBlog or "liking" my Facebook page. New followers: Welcome! Please leave a comment to let me know how you found my blog so that I can follow you back!
© Mama Dani's Musings

Maddy's Update: Dairy Free

**Warning- this update includes a normal mommy topic that others may consider tmi. That's right, we're talking about poop! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Maddy has been battling constipation since around November of last year. At first we thought she was holding it in so the doctor suggested Miralax and time. We were told that it may take a few months for her to forget that it hurt to poop. That was in April. Miralax did help but after months, she still would only poop regularly when she was on the Miralax. For some reason, I started wondering if the milk she was drinking could be the problem. That was sometime this past summer. I switched her to a lower fat milk. Things got better but she still needed the Miralax at times. Also, most of the time that she went on her own, she had waited too long and it hurt her. Something just wasn't right

A few weeks ago I brought her to the chiropractor for the first time. They had talked to me about seeing children when I started going and what stuck in my mind was that constipation issues was one of the reason parents brought their kids in. Along with getting an adjustment, we talked about her constipation. The chiro said that she believes in mommy instinct and if I have a feeling that dairy might be a problem than it's something worth looking into. She gave me info on allergy testing (even though Maddy's on the young side for accurate results) and mentioned doing an elimination diet instead. I went home and did my research and talked to some mommy friends that have experience with dairy problems. After talking to Richard, we decided to give the elimination diet a shot.

It was in the middle of the week so I had to do our normal milk and bread grocery store run so I picked up almond milk. That night Maddy started on almond milk instead of cow's milk. The plan was after we did the week's grocery shopping, she was going to be completely dairy free. She was cow's milk free for 2 days before going completely dairy free. After just a few days cow's milk free, she was going regularly and without problems. Today is day 16 milk free and day 14 dairy free and she's continued to be regular and has not had any problems pooping! I do not think this is just a coincidence. I believe she has a problem with dairy.

Now we just need to figure out at what level. I'm hoping she does not have to be completely 100% dairy free. It hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be but cheese is the hard part. Dairy free cheese is very hard to come by so we just completely cut it out. I miss it! I do think she will be able to handle some dairy since we saw a change before going completely dairy free. We're now going to add in the not obvious dairy and see if there's a change. If there is no change after a week, we'll add in a little obvious dairy...like maybe try pizza for dinner again! Hopefully we'll have this all figured out in a couple of weeks!



Stay up to date by following me on twitter @MamaDaniBlog or "liking" my Facebook page. New followers: Welcome! Please leave a comment to let me know how you found my blog so that I can follow you back!
© Mama Dani's Musings