Vitamin D?

I've been thinking. File this in the thinking myself into paranoia category, but I'm starting to wonder whether a vitamin D and calcium deficiency might be a problem for us.
Sasha has been breastfed from the day she was born. She's not eating food very well and never has. She will not drink milk. We are a night shift family so our exposure to sunlight is VERY infrequent. This all is the perfect setup for Rickets, a vitamin D and calcium deficiency.
The thought crossed my mind when I noticed Sasha's belly is a little bit distended outwards. But she doesn't seem to have any other signs of a deficiency that I can tell...no bowed legs, her teeth keep coming in okay. But a deficiency can exist months before there are physical signs and symptoms. I think I can reasonably assume that Sasha has a deficiency of vitamin d, considering she has no current source of it.

I guess it's something that I need to keep an eye on though. I started to give her vitamin drops today. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd prefer she get her nutrients from natural sources but since she's not eating I don't see much other choice. I will be glad once Sasha is old enough to eat children's chewable multi-vitamins, or if she ever starts eating again.

Recovery from Recovery

Sasha is feeling better it seems. At least she's in a much better mood and not so crabby. She doesn't seem to have a runny nose anymore. I think she's beaten whatever cold or flu that was ailing her. She is still not eating and her diapers are very strange looking (won't go into detail but trust me it's nasty) so I think her belly is still getting rid of something. Maybe a gastrointestinal bug?
I wish she would eat. She's been nursing like a newborn again and not eating food. Today for the first time ever, I had to force her to take a dropperful of vitamin drops against her will. I'm afraid that she might be suffering from nutritional deficiencies. I wish there was a better way but if she's not going to eat I'm going to have to give her the vitamin drops. I'd prefer that she get her nutrients from food.
If she's feeling better, I'm going to have to cut her back on her nursing sessions. I fear that her frequent nursing might be causing her appetite loss. I tolerated it while she was ill but now it's a habit that I have to break again. I am hoping her appetite will pick up once her nursing is cut back. Easier said than done, however. I know that cutting her nursing sessions back will mean lots of temper tantrums, whining, and a very crabby upset little girl. I have to keep offering her foods, even though she refuses, somehow without turning it into a power struggle. That's a delicate balance. I hope I have the strength. It's going to be a long weekend.

Meanwhile, my husband is feeling ill again. Didn't he just finish recovering from being sick? Blah can we get a break?

The bug

There's been some sort of cold bug going through our family lately. Jon started out with it a few weeks ago and it hit him pretty long and hard.
We thought that the rest of us had escaped unscathed. My immune system seems to have been really strong the last two years or so. But of course it's the holidays, so I started getting sick two days before christmas eve. Fortunately, the worst of it was over by Christmas Eve and I felt recovered enough to be able to go to my family's christmas party.


However it was on Christmas eve that I noticed that I had some strange rash all over my neck. I don't know how long it was there before I noticed it. You can see it in this picture the best (click to enlarge), but it's still not clear. (Pic from the family Christmas party. Sasha was riding on a rocking horse, and I carried her, horsey and all, into the living room when it was time to open presents). It really had me worried. It couldn't be a heat rash as I wasn't hot and neither was my neck. I had a heat rash elsewhere on my body to compare it to, and the rashes looked different. I tried to look it up online, but anyone who has ever tried to diagnose a rash by google image search knows how disgusting and scary that can be. Ugh! Closest I could match it to was measles or rubella. Which made me think. Hrm, Sasha had just gotten her MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) shot earlier that week. She had been crabby and not feeling well also. The vaccines are made with weakened viruses, but it is possible to get reactions from the vaccines. Was it also possible for people to actually come down with the actual diseases from the vaccines??? Was it then possible to pass on that disease to other people around you? It was a scary thought! I was actually really worried that maybe Sasha gave me measles from her mmr shot! But the rash disappeared the next day so I have no idea what it was. I guess it wasn't the mmr shot at all. But you can bet that if the rash had spread or if it was still there the next day I would have been asking some questions to the doctors.

Meanwhile, Sasha was not feeling well yesterday. She was very crabby and she stopped eating again. Such bad timing! I'm afraid we're going to lose any gains we might have had. She is back to nursing like a newborn and refusing to eat. I think she probably needs the immunological protection that nursing provides right now but once she's done fighting off whatever bug it is she's suffering from, I'll have to reduce her nursing sessions again in an attempt to get her to eat. Blah! That will be no fun.

Sadly, Sasha signed a new sign yesterday. "Hurt". That was the first time she ever signed it, and I think she was trying to tell us she had a headache. Poor baby. She was so miserable.

She also signed another new sign today. "Banana", which she signed at the mall when we asked her if she wanted us to buy her a banana.

Christmas

Well, my computer has been broken for the last few months. This means that I have been unable to really get pics off my camera, and that's why the pics have been less frequent lately. If I ever get pics off the camera I might go back to the older posts and affix the appropriate pictures. But at least for Christmas, I have pics because my brother took a bunch and gave me the files. Yay!

Sasha riding a little bike at my parents house, soon after we first arrived. Once she sat on it, she just sat there watching all the goings on. She isn't really familiar with my parents or her cousins, and especially not my parents house, so she had to sort of soak it all in before she would do anything. She was a bit overwhelmed. It takes her a bit to warm up to new people or situations and she usually copes with it by withdrawing and observing. She was clinging to my leg for a while. Her uncle was taking the pics of her and she wasn't sure what to make of him and his flashy camera yet.Finally warming up to her Uncle Mikey and his flashy camera :)

Here we have all the kids together. My two girls and my brother's three kids. Baby Madison is about four months old now.

Opening presents with her Daddy. She wasn't really paying much attention to any of the gift opening, especially once she got her first present open. She just wanted to play with that toy. She didn't care there were more toys!
I think she's got another molar coming in. She keeps sticking that tongue out.Playing with one of her christmas presents while sitting in mommy's lap. The particular gift she's playing with is a clear plastic ball with stuff inside it.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post to wish our family and friends a Merry Christmas.
We travelled up north to visit my family on Christmas Eve, and stayed overnight in a hotel. There, Sasha received many Christmas gifts, and got to see her cousins. She had already received her gifts from her Mom & Dad, a Kettler Kettrike Limited Edition Navigator (fancy German Tricycle), which she really likes! And she had already received some presents in the mail, like a toy cleaning set from her grandma (loves it!) and a Tickle Me Elmo from Mike, relative on my husband's side of the family. She got a set of megablocks from her big sister, which are like larger sized Legos for little ones and she likes those a lot too!
Cassie got a Karaoke machine, which is what she wanted. I gave her a chunk of cash to go shopping with at the mall and she spent it on clothes and jewelery.
Jon and I got a crock pot and some Wii games.
While staying at the hotel, Sasha got to go swimming for her first time! She seemed to like it. She wasn't happy or excited or anything, just very alert and looked like she was taking in the new experience with caution.
We had to drive back home on Christmas day so that I could return to work that night.

Boyfriend!

Here's a non-Sasha related post. Cassie has her first boyfriend.
Awwww! How cute!

She is 13 years old, and had a crush on Tyler, one of the boys in her math class, for the past few months. She was too scared to talk to him. She had a friend of hers, who was a friend of his, play mediator between them. Her friend talked to him and told him that Cassie liked him. Her friend says that he said he liked her too and would ask her out. Then her friend said that he said he tried but that Cassie shot him down. Cassie said she didn't realize he was trying to make an attempt at anything, just thought it was a casual conversation. Doh! She told her friend and her friend corrected the miscommunication. Tyler then asked her if she wanted to 'go out' and she said yes. So apparently that officially makes them a couple.

Now they're not 'going out', as in, going someplace together. I guess 'going out' is just a status, not an intention of traveling together. Hah!

For now, Cassie and Tyler are too scared to talk to each other. It appears that 'going out' does not involve them interacting much. But the new couple is the talk of the school, and Cassie says everyone is happy for them. She even changed her myspace page relationship status to say "in a relationship".

Middle school love. How sweet and innocent :)

Toddler Weight Loss

We are concerned about the weight loss Sasha has experienced over the last three months. At her 12 month exam, she weighed 18lbs 14ounces, and at her 15 month exam, she weighed 18lbs 8oz; so she has lost 6 ounces. I suppose that might not be much, but it's a weight loss when she should be gaining. She used to be at the 50th percentile for weight for her first 9 months, but now she's dropped below the third percentile for her weight at her age.
I know that toddler growth slows down after a year of age, thus requiring less food. But Sasha was always a picky eater. Actually, she just didn't seem to like the eating concept in general. But within the last few weeks or so, Sasha has finally started eating.
I wasn't surprised that her gain wasn't as large as most children should be. But even before her well baby exam, I knew that we would not see much of a weight gain. The loss of weight was a surprise to me, however.
My hope right now is that because Sasha is actually increasing her food intake by leaps and bounds lately, that her growth rate is now increasing. I don't know if it's enough to make up for what she hasn't gained before, but she is definitely improving. Of course, the doctor didn't seem to understand that she was already on the increase.

For now, I think our plan is to continue to offer her foods many times a day. Instead of three meals a day, we do a bunch of mini-meals and try to keep her constantly grazing.
Despite the doctor suggesting we wean Sasha, I really don't want to do that during the middle of the cold and flu season. She gets extra immunological benefits from nursing. Several times I have seen her fight off colds and flus that have laid my husband out and I attribute that to the benefits of nursing. I am encountering a lot of sick coworkers, and I am afraid that I am bringing some extra germs home to my family. So I do not want to wean her now. Instead, I am trying a new tactic. I do not nurse Sasha until after she has eaten all she can at a meal. Then I top her off with a nursing session. She always has room for milk and regardless of how full she is, she never ever refuses nursing. It's like her dessert, lol.

I do want to keep trying to give her nutritional foods, but I do admit it has sort of become a feed-Sasha free-for-all, where we give her anything that interests her. Sweets, high fat foods, anything that she'll eat. Bad foods are better than no food at all, right? I am hoping that we can curb this after we get her weight problem under control so we don't develop some bad eating habits.

Articles I am reading on how to feed picky toddlers:
Dr Sears- FEEDING TODDLERS: 17 TIPS FOR PLEASING THE PICKY EATER
Dr Sears- IS YOUR CHILD GETTING ENOUGH TO EAT? HOW TO TELL
kellymom- Nutrition for nursing toddlers
Boosting Calories in your Child's Diet

Toddlers like mine and their mother's takes on the problem:
Mothering your nursing toddler
Berkeley Parents Network- Toddlers Not Eating

15 Month Well Baby Exam

We had Sasha's routine 15 Month Well Baby Exam on Tuesday.

In her past exams, she usually started crying the moment she sees the nurse. The nurse at the pediatrician's office is the same nurse she sees every visit from the time she was a week old onward, so she recognizes her as bad news. This time, Sasha didn't cry immediately upon seeing her and was mostly cordial at first. We stripped her down to her diaper and she was amused with that. She likes to play with her belly button, so any time she's got no shirt on, she's a happy belly-button picking girl. Sasha also found the scale in the exam room to be a fun toy. She liked to step on and off of it like it was a fun wobbly step. When the nurse came back in the room, Sasha happily stepped on the scale for her. The nurse seemed confused at the weight, 19lbs, and decided to try to weigh Sasha on the scale in the other exam room. That other scale is the scale Sasha had always been weighed on in previous visits and was the baby scale... you know the kind that weighs in pounds and ounces and sits on a tabletop.
The baby scale said Sasha weighed 18lbs 8oz. This was concerning. At her 12 month exam, Sasha weighed 18lbs 14oz. This meant she lost weight instead of a gain. Not good. Sasha doesn't seem to have gained much weight since she was 9 months old.
I've had a difficult time transitioning Sasha to solids, as I've mentioned in previous posts. She kept refusing to eat. Only in the last three weeks has Sasha shown even the slightest interest in solid foods. So I wasn't surprised at the low weight but I wasn't expecting a weight loss.

The nurse measured Sasha's height, and she did gain an inch of height. She is now 30 inches long. Sasha protested the height measurement process by screaming and crying.
The nurse left and the doctor came in the room. He was very upset about the weight loss and about Sasha's weight. According to his growth charts, Sasha is now below the third percentile in weight for her age. He kept saying "No this is not good". He started insisting that I wean Sasha from breastfeeding and implied that nursing is no longer a good source of nutrition for a toddler after a year of age, and that nursing ruins her appetite. I'm not sure what to think of his statement, but I gues that's for another post. He said that Sasha is malnourished, that we were retarding her brain development, and kept saying "This is not good".

Usually, the next pediatric exam wouldn't be until 18 months, but he wants to see her in one month to do a more thorough evaluation of her weight and nutritional status. He is going to do some bloodwork on her at that exam to check if she is anemic or if she has any malnutritional deficiencies.

The doctor continued his examination, under much protest from Sasha. He is very thorough in his examinations. He checked her abdomen, bones, joints, fontanelle status, and had us make her walk so he could observe her gait. All that was good.

They wanted to administer two shots at this visit, the mmr shot, and the chicken pox vaccination. The MMR shot has my husband nervous, with all the accusations of links to autism, but we did allow her to receive the shot. I refused the chicken pox vaccine. I suppose I could write a separate post on that but it is not required by law and I would prefer she get the chicken pox instead of the vaccine.

After the shots, the visit was complete. Sasha was quite mad at that mmr shot. I know it hurt. We set up an appointment for one month from now, and for her 18 month well baby exam. We shall see how her weight is at her evaluation next month.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Lately, Sasha has been a great imitator. We are learning about some of the things we do that we don't realize we are doing! Here are some fun examples.

My husband has a cold with a cough, runny nose, and sneezing. The whole works. Sasha darling, who is not sick, now likes to imitate her daddy. You'd think she's got a cold with all the fake coughing, sneezing, and sniffling noises she's making. She thinks it's hilarious. I tell her "bless you!" every time she fake sneezes, and that really keeps her going.

Then today as Sasha was brushing her teeth, I noticed she kept tilting her head down so her chin touched her chest once in a while. I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Brush-brush-brush-brush-tilt, repeat. Eventually, when she finally got a stream of spittle going and managed to make a 'pthooey' sound, I realized what she was doing...she was trying to spit. Just like mommy and daddy do when they brush their teeth. I didn't realize she was watching us so closely.

Cassie has been on the phone all the time lately, talking to her friends, as 13 year old teenager like to do. She seems like she's got that phone permanently attached to her ear. Sasha likes to walk around with random objects up to her ear while 'talking', just like sister talking on the phone. Then Sasha started saying "Dood" on her 'phone' all the time. Again, it took me a little while to realize what was going on. Cassie was talking excitedly to one of her friends, chanting "Dude! DUDE! DUDE!", and there was Sasha saying "Dood! Dood! Dood!". Hah! I guess she thinks when you're on the phone, you should say "dude" a lot.

I'm sure I'll have plenty more of these.

Clingy, Affectionate, Hungry, Whiny

As my title suggests, Sasha has been clingy, super affectionate, whining a lot, and strangely very hungry. I'm glad that she is eating so well lately, and I do love all the extra affection she's been showing us. But it's interesting. She's affectionate to everyone, everything, all the time. If she is awake, she is constantly hugging or kissing on something. A stuffed animal, a doll, a family member, or even a calculator manual. Yes. She kissed a calculator manual!? Silly little girl! She's been more content to just park herself in my lap or in my arms and she'll just stay there.

Her second molar finally broke through. I suspect she is fighting off whatever illness my husband is suffering from. She's been eating like a horse, so I think she's probably going through a growth spurt. Anyone who remembers what a growth spurt feels like, I'm sure they can remember growing pains. They hurt! So I'd presume a growth spurt is a painful process for a young child. Combine all of the above, and we have a whiny, clingy child. I wish I could take away all her pain and discomfort.

Sasha's House

Here is one of the toys Sasha LOVES whenever we go to her little preschool program. It's an old toy though, not available for sale anymore. It's a Little Tykes play house. She loves to open and close the front door. The mailbox opens and closes and there is a plastic envelope that can go in the mailbox like little fake mail. There's a little garden with plastic carrots and turnips and stuff that she can pull out. There are flowers and spinning birds. And even a doorbell. She mostly just opens and closes the door, and opens and closes the mailbox repeatedly, never getting bored of that.

Most of the time she spends at the Monday preschool program, she spends defending her house. Sometimes other little intruders try to come inside but she stands her ground. She doesn't push them. They might try to push her, but she stubbornly stands firm and eventually they go away and leave her to her house again. Now that's my girl!

Sasha Can Moo....Can You?

Sasha has added some new "words" to her vocabulary...animal sounds! I've been working with her on those, especially now that she has a puzzle with pictures of animals on it that she likes to play with. She's also taken a new enjoyment in reading with me, and some of her books have animals in them also.
She can now Quack like a duck, Tweet like a bird, Woof like a dog, Moo like a cow, and Baa like a sheep. We're working on some other sounds too but I don't think I've heard them yet. Yesterday, I saw a flock of geese flying overhead while we were in a store parking lot. I pointed up in the air at them and said "Look Sasha! Birds!". She watched in rapt amazement at the geese flying through the air. She then signed the sign language for 'bird' and said "Tweet Tweet". Clever little girl!

Like I said, Sasha has a great interest in books lately. She'll grab a book from her bookcase, then she'll walk over to me. If I am sitting on the floor cross legged, she'll turn herself around so her back is facing me and will slowly walk herself backwards and sit herself down in my lap. That means it's time to read. She turns the pages and points at the pictures in her books, and I read to her or tell her what is going on in the pictures. I'm so glad that she is so interested in reading.

Sasha still has a mouthful of teeth coming in and several of those teeth look painful. My husband is still sick, and he's been trying to keep from spreading it to me or Sasha. Sasha has been a little more crabby than usual today and she's been grabbing at her neck. I'm not sure if that means she's getting a sore throat or not. I hope not! My husband says he feels absolutely miserable so I hope she is spared.