10 month well visit

we missed devin's 9 month visit and originally just scheduled his one year for a few days after his birthday at the end of june, but i decided to move it up and scheduled it for yesterday just because he hasn't been to the dr. in months! i never imagined we could get away with going so long in between visits but he just hasn't had to go. even with his cold we ended up not bringing him in and he got over it all by himself. i was very curious to see how much he weighed so we went in yesterday for a 10 month well visit. he loved the paper on the table he was on. we went through four new sheets because he kept shredding it!

he weighs 20 lbs. even and is 27.5 inches long! what a chunker! that puts him in the 10th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight for his ACTUAL age! his weight is in the 67th percentile for his adjusted age and his length is in the 56th percentile for his adjusted age.

the dr. is very impressed with these numbers as well as his development and told me that he rarely sees preemies catch up to their actual age as fast as devin has. he said it usually takes 26 weekers or the like 2-3 years to even get on the charts for their actual age, sometimes even for their adjusted ages. he said sometimes they don't catch up developmentally until they are school aged. he told me hes officially considering devin caught up as of yesterday! now, i beg to differ, not because im negative or i don't think hes doing well enough, but because i don't think its fair for me or others to consider him to be just like a "normal" 10 month old. being born 3 months early didn't score him extra points or anything, we're very lucky it didn't set him back, but i look at him as a 7 month old and i will continue to do so until further notice. like i've said before, i think only other preemie mamas can really understand the reasoning behind that.

the dr. said everything looks great, his ears look perfect, lungs sound great. he does have a small patch of eczema on his chest that he prescribed a cream for. he said apply it twice daily for 2 weeks. it will clear it up, but its going to come back in a month or two. eczema just sticks around, sometimes until the child is much older. its a very small, dime sized area that he will sometimes scratch at if he doesn't have a shirt on or if he gets hot and sticky. it really doesn't bother him too much which is why i feel absolutely fine NOT using this cream we picked up at the pharmacy. i read the info. and immediately said, "NOPE, this is not going on my kid!" its called triamcinolone 0.1% cream and its really not worth the possible side effects. the link i provided isn't even the scariest part. it doesn't have the same info as the pamphlet i got with it. here's a small portion of info given under the "pediatric use" category:

Pediatric Use: Pediatric patients may demonstrate greater susceptibility to topical corticosteroids-induced HPA axis suppression and Cushing’s syndrome than in mature patients because of a larger skin surface area to body weight ratio. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression, Cushing’s syndrome, and intracranial hypertension have been reported in children receiving topical corticosteroids. Manifestations of adrenal suppression in children include linear growth retardation, delayed weight gain,low plasma cortisol levels, and absence of response to ACTH stimulation. Manifestations of intracranial hypertension include bulging fontanelles, headaches, and bilateral papilledema. Administration of topical corticosteroids to children should be limited to the least amount compatible with an effective therapeutic regimen. Chronic corticosteroid therapy may interfere with the growth and development of children.

ummmm, yeah, no thanks doc! i think devin can deal with a little itch here and there. WTF?!

so thats that. devin is big, strong and healthy. im so proud of him and never could have imagined being where we are today just 10 months ago, sitting next to his little plastic house looking in at my tiny baby for the first time. hes so amazing!