Two year old check up

In honor of his birthday, Zeke got a visit to the Good Doctor last Wednesday. It was a quick visit requiring no vaccinations or anything else Zeke might consider too terribly traumatic.

We have had two visits to the doctor since his last well baby visit, but no measurements since September. Good Doctor offered Zeke the chance to stand on the "big boy scale" (I'm glad that my doctor doesn't call it the "big girl" scale BTW). However, Zeke wasn't into it and GD said to put him on the baby scale. I was absolutely convinced that this would not work as the scale only goes up to 35 lbs. Imagine my surprise then when he was only 31.5 lbs (compared to 27.5 lbs last visit). He is also now 37.25 inches tall (compared to 33.5 inches last visit). GD asked if Zeke is the biggest child in his class. Yes, he is. Zeke isn't abnormally big, but he seems to put a lot of his energy into growing.

We went over the normal developmental questions and normal responses -- talking, fine and gross motor skills, eating, sleeping, potty training, behavior. The Good Doctor gave thumbs up on Zeke's recent positive response to brussels sprouts. He also said that it is positive that Zeke occasionally uses his potty (especially because he is a boy) and has started telling me when to change his diaper, and the Doctor encouraged me to step up the potty learning if we want. Approaches: sit him on the potty for 5 minutes after he drinks or eats; track when he needs changing and sit him on the potty then; and start putting underpants on him for half an hour at a time after changing him so that he can start getting a sense that underpants are the way to go. (I've gotten Kiddo the underwear but have yet to try this.) The Good Doctor also said that if Zeke seems to be growing at the pace he is and developing motor skills, that it is not surprising that he is not at the head of the curve of talking. I told the doctor that I am no longer worried about his speech development.

When we came in, the Doctor asked if Zeke was a well baby or a sick baby and I said we were there for both type of visits. You may remember how Zeke had a less than fun Movie Night at school. From Friday to Sunday, Zeke had a fever and ate very little. As the fever broke, he started getting little marks on his hands, feet and bottom. In June, Zeke had roseola, but for a time we wondered if he had Hand Foot Mouth Disease (a highly contagious virus). When I saw the rash, I realized that he definitely had HFMD. I ran into one of his classmates' moms at Target and eventually (eventually -- I wouldn't say she was upfront about it) she said that her son had HFMD the week before. There is nothing to be done about the virus other than for it to run its course, so I kept Zeke home from school, called and told the school to do an extra cleaning, and waited for Zeke's check up to confirm. Basically, the Doctor confirmed my internet diagnosis of Zeke (eh, who needs medical school?) and said that he would be contagious for at least 7 -10 days.

When I asked if we should cancel Zeke's birthday party, the Doctor asked two questions: would there be other small children there and how much did I like their parents. He said Zeke might not be contagious, so I figured parents might not want to come and I might need to cancel the party. So sad!

Despite being shy and super snuggly with me, Zeke ended up enjoying the attention from his doctor and demanding of him "Tickle, tickle!" -- tickling being a speciality of the Doctor. I, however, came away with a little less than a smile. My wheels are still spinning a little over how old fashioned the Good Doctor can be sometimes. He repeated his opinion about signing (that babies should talk first, sign later) and gave me advice I don't think I want to follow about (to say delicately) how to care for some of Zeke's anatomy. I can't even imagine his reaction if I had wanted to delay more of Zeke's vaccinations as I now wished I had (or, it is more accurate to say I can imagine his reaction). I'm a just a bit disappointed as we have always felt so fond of the Good Doctor, and it seems utterly backwards to go in and hope to see his backup pediatrician.

Zeke and I both got Winnie the Pooh stickers for our trouble, though, and do not plan on going back for the next year!