The wee one is two and a half years old, and he's just as wee as ever. We visited the pediatrician this week to discover that he hasn't really grown much at all. I'm continually grateful to our doc for never even uttering the phrase Failure to Thrive, but I can see the height and weight below the 3rd percentile for the past 2.5 years just as well as the next person.
So we're left with the why. We haven't done anything different in the food department with Gideon than we did with Evelyn. We don't put bricks on his head. He has zero symptoms (e.g., developmental delays, cognitive delays, language delays, GI issues, pain, refusal to chew or swallow food). Last year around this time, we were sent to UNC to have him tested for Cystic Fibrosis. That had my head spinning for a bit. But the test was negative and the nutritionist wasn't concerned and we went on with life.
Next week we'll head to the Duke peds GI clinic. Just when we were done with Duke's GI docs for Jonathan, we'll get to know all the peds GI docs. I'm not really sure what they'll do. He's had a lot of blood work lately, so maybe they'll review it and then talk to us about options. If his growth hormone levels are low, one option could be daily injections of human growth hormone. All I really (think I) know about that is the increased cancer risk it carries with it. So it'll take some convincing that the benefits outweigh risks on that one.
But for now we're just in limbo, and I suspect we will be for some time while we visit various doctors and get various tests and try to figure it all out.
So far I've done a pretty good job keeping all my shit together as it relates to all this. I say that with full disclosure that I was telling Neil precisely that, and I spontaneously combusted*.
But Gideon? He's fantastic. He's hilarious. He knows precisely how to annoy his sister at any given point in time. He says things like, "Um, actually... yes" when asked if he wants a drink. He hates the ocean and dogs, he loves dinosaurs and screaming and jumping off things. And every day we love him just a little bit more.
*Okay, so really I just cried.
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