So- Jake's eyes. We went to the Pediatric ophthalmologist when we were on vacation, since it is only about 70 miles instead of a 2-hour drive. Young Jake was unwilling to cooperate with the actual vision test- the one where the doctor looks through the boards to see if he is following the black and white images shown on them- he was much more interested in looking for her teeny, tiny eye hole that she peeks through. That alone (to me) is encouraging. As you can see in the picture above, when he is up-close to something, he looks directly at it. This is good. He has also FINALLY shown a love for books. This has been a long time coming. He wasn't too busy watching television- he has actually just noticed that we have one. He just didn't like to have a book held in front of him - and he has done a total 180 there. He says "buut. buut." and will drag a book to me for reading.
When Jake is looking at something in the distance, he still 'finds the null'- tilts his head at an angle so that his brain holds his eyes still enough that he can most clearly see what he is looking at (in this case, Big Brother was diving off a dock). This isn't a huge deal because his 'null point' isn't too far off from center. When he was first diagnosed, we were told of a horrible brain surgery (actually- any brain surgery is considered horrible when you are referring to your then-4-month old) that can straightened out a null-point that is not conducive with living a normal life. Our prayers of having his null-point be 'normal' were answered. People say he looks inquisitive when he is looking at things-- agreed. And adorable. Don't forget adorable.I might have said all that before. Sorry if it's a repost. Well, clearly the adorable part is blogged about regularly. The other stuff.
He is going to get evaluated by an Occupational Therapist soon- to get his "baseline" at age 2. When he turns 3, his needs become the school district's issues- so they want to get his baseline now to see how he improves by age 3. I can't guess at the future, but hopefully we can figure out what side of the class he needs to be placed on and how close to the dry erase board he needs to be. More on that later.
I asked the doctor if she had ever seen a delay in speech pattern- the idea being that if one is so busy focusing in on life, one would be less inclined to comment on it. She said no- that's part of "Just Jake" (his official Mommy Diagnosis) - when you are a boy with 2 older sibs, one of which never, ever stops chatting, you just might take longer to figure out what your mouth is for.
On that note, Jake has decided that his mouth is not for eating. He got diagnosed with nutritional iron deficiency a few weeks ago-- a nail in Mom's dietitian coffin. I knew that it was a likely possibility due to his massive milk consumption. When he finally weaned at around 20 months, he loved whole milk. Well- rephrase-- it took me about a month of adding different flavors to the milk to get him to even accept something not breast flavored in a sippy cup. So once he did accept milk, we were not about to do anything that would affect that. When we traveled so much this summer and he got hungry- he wanted milk. Easy enough. Portable, 150 calories a pop. He has gained 5 pounds in about 6 months - milk is good, right? Well, unless you drink 50 ounces a day. That's right, loyal readers, 5-0. BUMMER! When I told the doc that, he said "Well- it's probably okay. He looks good. He isn't overly tired?" (apparently some kids with anemia fall asleep at the table etc..) I said "no- but didyahearme?? Fifty. 5-0. Not 1-5." We decide to go ahead and check him for anemia that day (well, that day, since I got all the way out to the car and then remembered to go back into the lab). The doctor called me that afternoon- Jake's hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume are both low-- for you non-medical folks, that means his red blood cells are small and there aren't enough of them.
The treatment? Iron, of course. Stinky, smells-like-wet-keys and makes-huge-black-poos iron. He will lie on the ground with his face in his hands when I tell him it is time for his medicine but then dutifully takes it. Unfortunately for Jake, you can't wash it down with milk since that interferes with absorption. Step 2 has been reducing his intake of cow's milk. No more full sippy snacks... gotta have food. OF COURSE, he has momma's vegetarian tendencies, so that doesn't help. I have also been making my own bread (not iron fortified, to my knowledge, unless they fortify flour- I need to check) so I have to get him some different bread. He'll eat 3 bites of iron fortified cereal. He will drink carnation instant breakfast, also fortified, when added to his milk- but that also adds extra calories that prevent him from eating more at meal time. His true loves- blueberries, yogurt, cheese... don't help the situation at all. Neither does Jake trying to pull open the refrigerator doors saying "Milt. Milt." and then crying when he doesn't get it. We see the doctor again early next month.
The bottom line... in 6 months, I'm sure it will be a non-issue. But for now, it stinks. Literally.
Yes, Jake's Dad decided that straight Mountain Dew was a perfect beverage choice for Young Jake. At least there isn't any calcium in it.
