one-year update

We took William for his 12-month check-up with the pediatrician. He is 21 lbs (25th percentile) and 30 inches in length (75th percentile). Yea for his height! That's half my height already! =) The doc said he is hitting all his developmental milestones and is the picture of health. I was a bit concerned about his weight since he's in the lower percentile, but she said he was perfectly fine and that his weight gain was in accordance with how he has been growing since birth. She said he was just slim and that that was good. He's at an age where he will eat what he needs, no more and no less. Bill had asked about him being a slow eater, and the doc said at this age, children like to dine, not eat. I thought that was funny. She said we should start switching to soy milk and get rid of his bottles. So pretty much all things baby will soon be gone. =(

She gave us some encouraging news about William's milk allergy. She didn't fully buy the fact that he's allergic to milk. She said when it comes to allergies, there are a lot of false positives and false negatives. It was odd that since William has such a severe allergy (according to his bloodwork) that he didn't show signs of it until he was 8 months old (when he broke out into hives). So she said we should just continue to follow-up with the allergist, but that we could also just try challenging his body by giving him some milk to see how he does... and have some Benadryl on hand in case he has an allergic reaction. Sounds a little scary... so I don't know if we'll be trying that. We'll probably just take him to the allergist and dialogue with him about what the pediatrician said, as well as get bloodwork done again this summer. We'll see...

I also asked the pediatrician if I could start using the same laundry detergent for his clothing now. She asked if I had been using a different detergent for him all year. I said yes, and she called me a sucker. =) I thought that was funny, too. She said there's no reason to use a different detergent for him unless he is clearly showing a reaction to it. It's more of a marketing scheme to dupe naive mothers. Doh! In my defense, I said it's because I'm a first-time mom. So enough said... =)