6-month checkup

We went for Owen's 6-month checkup on Monday. Everything checked out fine, except the doctor was concerned about his growth curve. At his 3-month check, he was 97+ percentile for length. At this check, he had only grown 1/2 an inch and had fallen to the 50th percentile. She said it could be a Vitamin D deficiency, since it's winter and he's not getting much exposure to the sun. She said it is now recommended that babies start a multivitamin at 6 months (I will be starting him on that ASAP.) She said it could also be a renal problem, and we could wait and see how he had grown at his 9-month check. If he was still progressing slowly, she would recommend blood tests to determine if there was an underlying issue. I told her that I would rather be proactive about it and we went ahead and did the blood draw in her office. The phlebotomists couldn't find a vein big enough, so they decided to do a heel stick.

The following morning, I recieved a call from the doctor. She said that everything was normal except for an elevated potassium. She said it was most likely caused by the squeezing and squeezing to get blood from the heel. But, if his lack of growth was caused by a renal problem, the potassium would be elevated. She suggested that I take him to the hospital to have the blood drawn there.

We went to the hospital that same morning. The phlebotomist there started looking at his arms for a vein, telling me that a heel stick would produce a false potassium reading (um, why didn't the phlebotomists in her office know this if it's such common knowledge??) She stuck both arms, but couldn't find a vein (THAT was fun! I guess the pediatrician's phlebotomists really were being conservative when they said they couldn't find a vein.) She finally resorted to a heel stick, but warmed his heel first and didn't squeeze, but let the blood run freely.

The doctor called us on Wednesday to let us know that everything was normal. Whew! In the meanttime, I had contacted the study coordinator at OU to find out what his height and weight measurements had been during our visits there. Turns out, they had recorded a lenght of 24.25 inches at 3 months. That's 2.75 inches shorter than at the pediatrician's office! No wonder it looked like he wasn't growing! The pediatrician's number at 3 months was very inflated, and he has actually grown 3.5 inches. He weighed 17lb. 10oz.

A lot of worry, but we have a healthy, normal baby!