Dorothy's been sick. One thing I didn't mention before is her weight loss due to the diarrhea (now going on for over a week, with loose stools for weeks before that) and refusal to eat almost anything.
Dorothy has been refusing to eat almost anything (except a bit of yogurt in the morning) for at least a week, maybe more (it's hard to remember through the haze of the last two weeks). She'll nurse fine, and has been chewing on her water-filled sippy cup (and getting a small amount of water in the process), but she's not really getting any nutrition beyond breastmilk.
Back at her nine month check-up at the beginning of December, she weighed 20 lbs 12 oz. Sometime in January, we weighed her on our home scale and she was roughly 22 lbs. She's been tracking along in the roughly 75th percentile for height and weight since she was one month old.
On February 1st, when we first took her to see the pediatrician (because of what turned out to be a virus, likely RSV), they weighed her at 21 lbs 8 oz. That measurement was taken on an old balance scale, and Dorothy was squirmy, but I'm sure it was close enough. Last Thursday (2/10), when we took her in for the follow-up that became a diagnosis of double ear infections, they weighed her (this time on a modern, digital scale) at 20 lbs, 10 oz. Today, only four days later, she came in at 20 lbs even (a bit below the 50th percentile for her age). She has lost almost 10% of her body weight in two weeks. The doctor didn't seem too worried about the weight loss because she's not yet showing any serious signs of dehydration. But it's been stressing us (me in particular) out to no end.
The good news is that her ears are looking much better, and she'll finish her antibiotics tomorrow. We've started giving her active culture yogurt and some acidopholus (on the recommendation of the doctor), which should help her innards get back in order, and hopefully stop the diarrhea shortly after she stops the antibiotics.
The good news is that even a little weight is a big percentage at this age (and size), so once she's better she can get up to speed with an extra glass of juice or two.
Okay, not juice. Juice is evil. But you know what I mean.
Here's wishing the whole lot of you a return to complete health, quickly!
--FrumDad
[Google Wangle: Orthodox Jewish Father]
PS: I feel obligated to mention that they do have Chicken Soup out there in Washington, you know.
Posted by: FrumDad at February 17, 2005 08:59 AM