This is just a quick post to detail our chiropractor experiences. I had mentioned before that we sought out chiropractic care once Sophia hit 15 months and still wasn't walking.
Let me first start out by saying that I "believe" in chiropractic care, that I myself have been treated by a chiropractor and had a good experience.
Sophia started seeing a chiropractor in November 2012. We had a 40 minute drive to go there but they came highly recommended. After examining Sophia, the chiro thought she had "sticky and clicky" hips. He wanted to see her 3x a week, EVERY WEEK. I like to think I'm a good mom but after a few weeks of that I had enough.
Our second chiropractor was in the next town over. When she first examined her, she was SURE there was something off about Sophia's right leg. So much so that she insisted I call her pediatrician and have a lower extremity x-ray done. It was her belief that Sophia's fibula was longer in her right leg than in her left one. She "Set" the bone with a little black instrument and asked to see her in 2 days to see if it stayed in place. She said she didn't know what she could possibly do for us and would anxiously await the x-ray.
The bone didn't "stay in place", so we went to our local hospital to get another x-ray. It came out fine, she was fine.
At this stage, I am unsure how much I believe. Congentially longer fibulas, sticky clicky hips.... and a baby who was already going to enough appointments a week in my opinon.
We stopped going to the chiropractor after that.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Back to Story Line: Hip X-ray & Early Intervention
About 4 and a half months ago (according to my Instagram account) (follow me if you want: @mygreatestaccomplishment ) , when Sophia was 16 months old, we had taken her to the pediatrician to express our concerns about not walking, along with an SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) checklist I had printed out from the internet. At this point, her sleeping was at the very worst it had and has ever been (knock on wood).
We had recently switched to the practice after being disappointed with our first choice. We still don't see any one doctor there, so no one really knows who Sophia is at this point, and they still don't almost 5 months later... but non-vaxers (more on that later) can't be choosers, especially in our area, so here we are.
Our concerns about SPD were dismissed ( because honestly, Sophia isn't sensitive to light, sounds, articles of clothing, and whatever else was on their standardized form) and we were given a referral for the early intervention program in our State (Connecticut), Birth to Three (abbreviated B23 from now on).
We also received orders for a hip x-ray, because it was medically necessary to rule anything physical out. We went the next day. Sophia was so tired, SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS. It was a small miracle. We had to wait in the tiny waiting room (me holding a sleeping Soph) while the technician called our doctor and discussed the results. I was so nervous, I can barely remember the details of the room, and couldn't tell you what it looked like if I tried. My gut told me that nothing was wrong with her hips, but here I was at an imaging center with my baby anyway. I held it together as the nurse told me to come in to talk to my doctor's office on the phone. The moments between "hello" and "the x-ray came back all clear, nothing's wrong" are probably the longest moments of my entire life.
She was fine.
I left a message on the B23 hotline as we were leaving the office. A couple weeks later, December 4, 2012, 2 women came to our house. One was a physical therapist, and conducted the interview, and another was (I suspect) an Occupational Therapist, and played on the floor with Soph.
Sophia didn't say a word the entire time they were here, which was over an hour. She had said words like "mama, dada, dogga, ball" to me and my husband, but wasn't crazy about having strangers at the house, so she got a score of zero words. She demonstrated her scoot and was not, at the time, pulling up on anything to stand or cruising.
She qualified for services almost immediately by just looking at her for the motor delay, but they just had to ask me the full hour of questions. Her scores came out as follows:
We had recently switched to the practice after being disappointed with our first choice. We still don't see any one doctor there, so no one really knows who Sophia is at this point, and they still don't almost 5 months later... but non-vaxers (more on that later) can't be choosers, especially in our area, so here we are.
Our concerns about SPD were dismissed ( because honestly, Sophia isn't sensitive to light, sounds, articles of clothing, and whatever else was on their standardized form) and we were given a referral for the early intervention program in our State (Connecticut), Birth to Three (abbreviated B23 from now on).
We also received orders for a hip x-ray, because it was medically necessary to rule anything physical out. We went the next day. Sophia was so tired, SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS. It was a small miracle. We had to wait in the tiny waiting room (me holding a sleeping Soph) while the technician called our doctor and discussed the results. I was so nervous, I can barely remember the details of the room, and couldn't tell you what it looked like if I tried. My gut told me that nothing was wrong with her hips, but here I was at an imaging center with my baby anyway. I held it together as the nurse told me to come in to talk to my doctor's office on the phone. The moments between "hello" and "the x-ray came back all clear, nothing's wrong" are probably the longest moments of my entire life.
She was fine.
I left a message on the B23 hotline as we were leaving the office. A couple weeks later, December 4, 2012, 2 women came to our house. One was a physical therapist, and conducted the interview, and another was (I suspect) an Occupational Therapist, and played on the floor with Soph.
Sophia didn't say a word the entire time they were here, which was over an hour. She had said words like "mama, dada, dogga, ball" to me and my husband, but wasn't crazy about having strangers at the house, so she got a score of zero words. She demonstrated her scoot and was not, at the time, pulling up on anything to stand or cruising.
She qualified for services almost immediately by just looking at her for the motor delay, but they just had to ask me the full hour of questions. Her scores came out as follows:
Friday, April 26, 2013
Cloth Diapering and Walking Delays
As you can tell from the last few posts, while not trying to rush, I am trying to catch up to the present (so that I can at least start writing in present tense) because I have SO MUCH to share about what's going on NOW.
But I did want to take a quick pause to talk about something that has come up a couple times when we talk about walking delays and infants. As you've probably figured out by now, we are a "crunchy" family- meaning that we try to do things as naturally as possible, time or money allowing. One of those things that we do to be earth-friendly is using cloth diapers. We have used cloth since Sophia was about 7 weeks old, and she has been almost exclusively cloth diapered since about 13 weeks old (exceptions were made on vacations! haha!)
At Sophia's Birth to Three Evaluation, in which they determine if your family is eligible for services ( and I will talk about much more in the next post), the evaluator commented on Sophia's diapers, only because they made her have the appearance of a bowed back (if any of you out there CD: she was wearing an AppleCheeks! Imagine if she was wearing a Rumparooz! ha!) When it was determined that Sophia would be receiving Physical Therapy from Birth to Three (abbreviated B23 from now on) her therapist requested that we use disposable diapers during the therapy hour.
As I'm sure you've heard your grandmother tell you, cloth diapers have been around for a long time- disposables are still a relatively new invention. And everybody learned to walk just fine.
There has been some research done, and while there needs to be more - much more- done in the future, it is an interesting theory.
Dirty Diaper Laundry (a cloth diaper blog) posted a study discussing this topic ( http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/do-cloth-diapers-delay-walking-in-infants/ ). DDL is a great resource to read if you are interested learning more about cloth diapers!
The DDL blog references this study done at NYU: Go Naked. The abstract explains: "Diapers introduce bulk between the legs, potentially exacerbating infants’ poor balance and wide stance. We show that walking is adversely affected
Sophia wears a style of cloth diaper called "pockets" for the most part. Most of these modern cloth diaper companies pride themselves on being "trim" (less bulky) while still be absorbent. It is my belief that her diapers have little or no effect on her ability to walk.
In summary, "This study does show that wearing diapers has an affect on walking in the short term but cannot prove that this does anything except set them back a a few weeks in skill. As parents we all want what is the best for our children. According to this study being naked is the best!" -- which I'm sure we can all agree on! :-)
It is also worth noting that the above-mentioned study was sponsored by P&G, the manufacturer of Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers.
Recently, I bought a month's worth of disposable diapers to test this theory. At first, Sophia did seem to be more mobile in the "sposies". She was taking a few independent steps at the time. She has since regressed and hasn't been walking on her own for a couple weeks now. In our personal experience, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of diaper she has on- it's more likely that the weather or the phases of the moon are factors at this point!! She will only "walk" (take a step or two) when she is entirely comfortable in her surroundings and abilities.
EDIT: a friend in the Cloth Diaper community analyzed this article and wrote her findings. It's a great read to help keep things in perspective! Check it out at Cloth Diaper Guru.
What do you think? Do you think the cloth vs. disposable debate has any weight when we are talking about learning to walk?
But I did want to take a quick pause to talk about something that has come up a couple times when we talk about walking delays and infants. As you've probably figured out by now, we are a "crunchy" family- meaning that we try to do things as naturally as possible, time or money allowing. One of those things that we do to be earth-friendly is using cloth diapers. We have used cloth since Sophia was about 7 weeks old, and she has been almost exclusively cloth diapered since about 13 weeks old (exceptions were made on vacations! haha!)
At Sophia's Birth to Three Evaluation, in which they determine if your family is eligible for services ( and I will talk about much more in the next post), the evaluator commented on Sophia's diapers, only because they made her have the appearance of a bowed back (if any of you out there CD: she was wearing an AppleCheeks! Imagine if she was wearing a Rumparooz! ha!) When it was determined that Sophia would be receiving Physical Therapy from Birth to Three (abbreviated B23 from now on) her therapist requested that we use disposable diapers during the therapy hour.
As I'm sure you've heard your grandmother tell you, cloth diapers have been around for a long time- disposables are still a relatively new invention. And everybody learned to walk just fine.
There has been some research done, and while there needs to be more - much more- done in the future, it is an interesting theory.
Dirty Diaper Laundry (a cloth diaper blog) posted a study discussing this topic ( http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/do-cloth-diapers-delay-walking-in-infants/ ). DDL is a great resource to read if you are interested learning more about cloth diapers!
The DDL blog references this study done at NYU: Go Naked. The abstract explains: "Diapers introduce bulk between the legs, potentially exacerbating infants’ poor balance and wide stance. We show that walking is adversely affected
by old-fashioned cloth diapers, and that even modern disposable diapers—habitually worn by
most infants in the sample—incur a cost relative to walking naked. Infants displayed less mature
gait patterns and more missteps and falls while wearing diapers. Thus, infants’ own diapers
constitute an on-going biomechanical perturbation while learning to walk."Sophia wears a style of cloth diaper called "pockets" for the most part. Most of these modern cloth diaper companies pride themselves on being "trim" (less bulky) while still be absorbent. It is my belief that her diapers have little or no effect on her ability to walk.
In summary, "This study does show that wearing diapers has an affect on walking in the short term but cannot prove that this does anything except set them back a a few weeks in skill. As parents we all want what is the best for our children. According to this study being naked is the best!" -- which I'm sure we can all agree on! :-)
It is also worth noting that the above-mentioned study was sponsored by P&G, the manufacturer of Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers.
Recently, I bought a month's worth of disposable diapers to test this theory. At first, Sophia did seem to be more mobile in the "sposies". She was taking a few independent steps at the time. She has since regressed and hasn't been walking on her own for a couple weeks now. In our personal experience, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of diaper she has on- it's more likely that the weather or the phases of the moon are factors at this point!! She will only "walk" (take a step or two) when she is entirely comfortable in her surroundings and abilities.
EDIT: a friend in the Cloth Diaper community analyzed this article and wrote her findings. It's a great read to help keep things in perspective! Check it out at Cloth Diaper Guru.
What do you think? Do you think the cloth vs. disposable debate has any weight when we are talking about learning to walk?
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Somebody Please Help Me
12-15 months was hands down the hardest time of Sophia's life (and mine too, for that matter.)
Sleeping was out the window. Nobody could mention the world "sleep" without me glaring at them. We skipped a vacation. We stayed at home. A lot. My husband told me to not care about social norms- to just sleep whenever, who cares if it's night or day out. Sometimes I agreed, other times I was banging my head against the wall in frustration. I had a lot of babies around me, you see- always have. I watched them grow and develop in a typical or even not so typical patterns. Sophia was unlike any of those babies. I had a Psychology background (note: a bachelor's, not an expert at ALL, but I took every early childhood development class they offered because it was of interest to me). Up until I was 5 months pregnant, I worked at a daycare center, in the INFANT room. I knew infants. We vibed. Sophia and I did NOT vibe. I couldn't figure her out, no matter how hard I tried. I remember telling my husband before she was born, "Don't worry. Start college classes and go to work too. I got this."
I did NOT have this.
Sophia had not yet started walking by her 15 month well check up with her pediatrician. Around that time I also started bringing her to a chiropractor in hopes that she could get all her kinks worked out (from birth, from being a baby, from whatever- I'd read and heard a lot about chiropractic care for infants and wanted to finally give it a go). Right before I went to her 15 month appt, a friend had me look at a Sensory Processing Disorder Checklist for Infants and Toddlers ( http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/SPD-symptom-checklist-for-infants-and-toddlers.html ) I printed it out and brought it with me, because there were enough checks that I wanted an expert opinion.
At her appointment, she demonstrated her "walk". It is a scoot, where she pushes off with one leg and drags the other one along with her. I will upload a video as soon as I can find one.
Despite my SPD concerns (she didn't have ANY of the classical symptoms- which, if you are unfamiliar with SPD, are along the lines of Too Tight! Too Bright! Too Loud!) , we were referred to the early intervention program in our State, Birth to Three, for traditional Physical Therapy. The doctor we saw also ordered an x-ray of her hips to rule out any physical factors.
Sleeping was out the window. Nobody could mention the world "sleep" without me glaring at them. We skipped a vacation. We stayed at home. A lot. My husband told me to not care about social norms- to just sleep whenever, who cares if it's night or day out. Sometimes I agreed, other times I was banging my head against the wall in frustration. I had a lot of babies around me, you see- always have. I watched them grow and develop in a typical or even not so typical patterns. Sophia was unlike any of those babies. I had a Psychology background (note: a bachelor's, not an expert at ALL, but I took every early childhood development class they offered because it was of interest to me). Up until I was 5 months pregnant, I worked at a daycare center, in the INFANT room. I knew infants. We vibed. Sophia and I did NOT vibe. I couldn't figure her out, no matter how hard I tried. I remember telling my husband before she was born, "Don't worry. Start college classes and go to work too. I got this."
I did NOT have this.
Sophia had not yet started walking by her 15 month well check up with her pediatrician. Around that time I also started bringing her to a chiropractor in hopes that she could get all her kinks worked out (from birth, from being a baby, from whatever- I'd read and heard a lot about chiropractic care for infants and wanted to finally give it a go). Right before I went to her 15 month appt, a friend had me look at a Sensory Processing Disorder Checklist for Infants and Toddlers ( http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/SPD-symptom-checklist-for-infants-and-toddlers.html ) I printed it out and brought it with me, because there were enough checks that I wanted an expert opinion.
At her appointment, she demonstrated her "walk". It is a scoot, where she pushes off with one leg and drags the other one along with her. I will upload a video as soon as I can find one.
Despite my SPD concerns (she didn't have ANY of the classical symptoms- which, if you are unfamiliar with SPD, are along the lines of Too Tight! Too Bright! Too Loud!) , we were referred to the early intervention program in our State, Birth to Three, for traditional Physical Therapy. The doctor we saw also ordered an x-ray of her hips to rule out any physical factors.
An Abrupt Stop to Nursing and Becoming a Night Owl
I feel okay skipping 4 months-11 months because as far as development goes, Sophia was right on track and developing typically (rolling, sitting.... army crawl/inch worming... she never "crawled" in the true definition but we've all heard stories about kids that skip crawling and go straight to walking). We never ever went to the doctor, unless it was for a Well Check Up, because she was just a healthy kid who never got sick. I adored this about her, naturally. Come to think of it, she was really a model child up to this point- easy, happy, quiet--- all those things that might make some people say "hmm" but had me quite pleased that I had such a good-natured baby.
Last Summer, when she was 11 months and 1 week old, she stopped nursing. Just completely stopped. It was like a switch went off. I nursed her to sleep at night, and in the morning she wouldn't drink. I chalked it up to just wanting some real food for breakfast- she was almost a year old after all- and thought it would be fine, she'd drink in a couple hours. A couple hours turned into a couple days. I was in pain, because there was no gradual weaning at all. Green light, red light. I was actually in so much pain, that I decided to stop breastfeeding. I figured this is what she was telling me. And I only wanted to go through this particular excruciating experience once. (Hind sight is 20/20, let me just tell you that right now.) But at the time I decided that she could have some cow's milk and we could be done with it, what a nice transition, child-led, no fighting, la-dee-da.
Except she wouldn't drink cow's milk. White. Vanilla. Chocolate. Or Rice Milk. Or Coconut Milk. Or Almond Milk. Or Soy Milk. Or Strawberry Milk. Or strawberry yogurt with strawberry milk and chocolate sauce please drink this pretty please. She immediately spat it all out. So now I had an almost one year old not drinking a lick of dairy.
At this point, I am fine with it. Milk is definitely a cultural thing, and I'm not crazy about it myself. However, a year ago, I was NOT fine with it. This was a big red flag (for later) that at the time, as an event in isolation, I was losing sleep over. Why is my kid the one kid in the world who doesn't like milk? CHOCOLATE milk? etc
Around this time (it might have been earlier) Sophia really threw me for a loop when it came to sleeping. Up til now, I was okay with night wakings because she wasn't quite a year, and breastfed on command. We had definitely grown into a routine where she wouldn't wake up at night since she was about 8? 9? months (or so, sorry, I can't remember exactly). It wasn't like she slept from 8-8 every night or anything like that, but once you put her down, she typically wouldn't wake up until she was ready to be up for the day, whenever that might be.
Then things started to get really whacky. Night was day, day was night, she wasn't calming down at night and would stay up all hours, even though I knew she was tired. I am anti- CIO and even gentle sleep training had no appeal so I just sat with her. And sat with her. Some nights we watched the sun come up. We would miss appointments, social outings, because we were both so tired and miserable. My marriage took a big hit. I complained, a lot. Again... why is this happening, why is she so different, what is going on here? Every sleep/ behavioral book on the market was read or at least summarized, baths and massages were given, lavender, chamomile.... yeah, nothing worked. She was wired completely differently than any other child I had ever met or heard about.
Last Summer, when she was 11 months and 1 week old, she stopped nursing. Just completely stopped. It was like a switch went off. I nursed her to sleep at night, and in the morning she wouldn't drink. I chalked it up to just wanting some real food for breakfast- she was almost a year old after all- and thought it would be fine, she'd drink in a couple hours. A couple hours turned into a couple days. I was in pain, because there was no gradual weaning at all. Green light, red light. I was actually in so much pain, that I decided to stop breastfeeding. I figured this is what she was telling me. And I only wanted to go through this particular excruciating experience once. (Hind sight is 20/20, let me just tell you that right now.) But at the time I decided that she could have some cow's milk and we could be done with it, what a nice transition, child-led, no fighting, la-dee-da.
Except she wouldn't drink cow's milk. White. Vanilla. Chocolate. Or Rice Milk. Or Coconut Milk. Or Almond Milk. Or Soy Milk. Or Strawberry Milk. Or strawberry yogurt with strawberry milk and chocolate sauce please drink this pretty please. She immediately spat it all out. So now I had an almost one year old not drinking a lick of dairy.
At this point, I am fine with it. Milk is definitely a cultural thing, and I'm not crazy about it myself. However, a year ago, I was NOT fine with it. This was a big red flag (for later) that at the time, as an event in isolation, I was losing sleep over. Why is my kid the one kid in the world who doesn't like milk? CHOCOLATE milk? etc
Around this time (it might have been earlier) Sophia really threw me for a loop when it came to sleeping. Up til now, I was okay with night wakings because she wasn't quite a year, and breastfed on command. We had definitely grown into a routine where she wouldn't wake up at night since she was about 8? 9? months (or so, sorry, I can't remember exactly). It wasn't like she slept from 8-8 every night or anything like that, but once you put her down, she typically wouldn't wake up until she was ready to be up for the day, whenever that might be.
Then things started to get really whacky. Night was day, day was night, she wasn't calming down at night and would stay up all hours, even though I knew she was tired. I am anti- CIO and even gentle sleep training had no appeal so I just sat with her. And sat with her. Some nights we watched the sun come up. We would miss appointments, social outings, because we were both so tired and miserable. My marriage took a big hit. I complained, a lot. Again... why is this happening, why is she so different, what is going on here? Every sleep/ behavioral book on the market was read or at least summarized, baths and massages were given, lavender, chamomile.... yeah, nothing worked. She was wired completely differently than any other child I had ever met or heard about.
The First Few Days
As I think about Sophia's life so far I think it's important to go over a few "key" periods in her life. This helps you as the reader get a "Big Picture" view over time, and it helps me chronicle my experience.
The next few posts will be snap shots of time where something just wasn't quite right, and what we did about it at the time. At the end of this series of posts, I hope to be able to pull them all together into a conclusion.
Starting with: The first week of Sophia's life (July into August, 2011)
Sophia was like all newborns in the hospital that week, except she was one of the only vaginally birthed ones on our floor (I specifically remember a nurse telling me that all the other moms were either in the OR or recovery). I didn't want her to go to the nursery at first, but seeing as she wasn't eating and I hadn't slept in, 24? hours, at one point the first night I decided to let her go. She came back just as I was falling asleep, supposedly hungry. But I didn't have anything to give her, this being my first baby, I didn't even have colostrum yet. So she kind of yelled for awhile and then... dun dun dunnnn... we gave her a pacifier. We got released later that day. I was pumping some colostrum, since Sophia still didn't want to nurse, or didn't want to try to, anyway. We fed her with our fingers, dipping a finger into the bottle and letting her eat it off our finger, since the LC told us to. Once we got home, we had to wake Sophia up to feed her. She had no interest in eating. We blew in her face, shook her very gently, took off her clothes, dribbled milk into her mouth... nothing. It was sort of like talking to a rag doll. My milk took 5 days to come in due to this cause and effect relationship.
We finally had to "force" feed her some formula, because her jaundice was coming back, and I of course had phrases like "failure to thrive" bouncing around my head. Out of sheer will and determination, we got the knack of breastfeeding, but only because I am one of the most stubborn people I know, and refused to give up. For a few weeks I pumped and fed her pumped milk bottles, then we moved up to on the breast with a nipple shield because her latch was all sorts wrong (but did I care, or seek help? No. I was too excited that she was nursing). And then finally around 3 months old I was able to just go cold turkey on the nipple shield and she breastfeed exclusively until 4.5 months of age, at that time we added food because she was a genuinely hungry little monkey, and they hadn't come out with the EBF until 6 months mandate yet.
The next few posts will be snap shots of time where something just wasn't quite right, and what we did about it at the time. At the end of this series of posts, I hope to be able to pull them all together into a conclusion.
Starting with: The first week of Sophia's life (July into August, 2011)
Sophia was like all newborns in the hospital that week, except she was one of the only vaginally birthed ones on our floor (I specifically remember a nurse telling me that all the other moms were either in the OR or recovery). I didn't want her to go to the nursery at first, but seeing as she wasn't eating and I hadn't slept in, 24? hours, at one point the first night I decided to let her go. She came back just as I was falling asleep, supposedly hungry. But I didn't have anything to give her, this being my first baby, I didn't even have colostrum yet. So she kind of yelled for awhile and then... dun dun dunnnn... we gave her a pacifier. We got released later that day. I was pumping some colostrum, since Sophia still didn't want to nurse, or didn't want to try to, anyway. We fed her with our fingers, dipping a finger into the bottle and letting her eat it off our finger, since the LC told us to. Once we got home, we had to wake Sophia up to feed her. She had no interest in eating. We blew in her face, shook her very gently, took off her clothes, dribbled milk into her mouth... nothing. It was sort of like talking to a rag doll. My milk took 5 days to come in due to this cause and effect relationship.
We finally had to "force" feed her some formula, because her jaundice was coming back, and I of course had phrases like "failure to thrive" bouncing around my head. Out of sheer will and determination, we got the knack of breastfeeding, but only because I am one of the most stubborn people I know, and refused to give up. For a few weeks I pumped and fed her pumped milk bottles, then we moved up to on the breast with a nipple shield because her latch was all sorts wrong (but did I care, or seek help? No. I was too excited that she was nursing). And then finally around 3 months old I was able to just go cold turkey on the nipple shield and she breastfeed exclusively until 4.5 months of age, at that time we added food because she was a genuinely hungry little monkey, and they hadn't come out with the EBF until 6 months mandate yet.
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