Well Max

Max had his well child visit today. We changed insurance companies at the beginning of the year, so I was finally able to his annual checkup a little closer to his actual birthday! The older he gets, the quicker and easier his appointments get. He weighed in at 39.4 pounds and was 41 3/4 inches tall -- 75th percentile across the board. He's been jumping up the height percentiles at every checkup, which makes me think there is some truth to the revised preemie rule that states that you get to add a catchup year for every month they were preemie (instead of the inane "caught up by 2" rule of thumb).

Max happily chatted up the doctor, checked out the pictures of her new baby, and examined every inch of the doctor's office. The doctor said that he checked out great and that his development was very age appropriate. He didn't pass the eye exam that the nurse gave him (he was interested in something else and wasn't paying much attention) and if we hadn't just gotten his eyes checked and gotten the all clear from his opthamologist, the pedi was going to send us over to the eye doc anyway. The doctor checked his umbilical hernia again and it is now officially closed, so no surgery for Max!

As it turned out, he was due for some shots. I had been thinking he was all clear until he was five, but I guess they do a lot of what used to be 5-year boosters are age four. He was due for his DTaP, his HiB, and his MMR (in addition to the varicella and flu shots, which we aren't doing at this point). I told the doc I preferred to not give the MMR with other shots and that I'd make an appointment for a nurse visit in a month or two. The doctor proceeded to tell me that she'd just been to a seminar about how important it was to stick to the shot schedule, etc., etc., but the MMR shot used to be given at five and it was ok to wait. She then asked me if I wanted to schedule the nurse visit now (???). I told her if it was fine to wait until five, I'd just have Max get it at his checkup next year.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand the whole vaccine and doctor thing. At least in part, I think the vaccine schedules and recommendations were put in place for both the convenience of the doctors and to make sure that kids got as many shots in as few visits as possible, to ensure that parents were more likely to get kids all of their shots. That's fine and I can appreciate that, but it just makes me roll my eyes when they kick about varying from the schedule, when I know they're more concerned about making all their records look neat and tidy than any real health issues. And then they wonder why parents don't trust the medical community's word as absolute law when it comes to vaccinations. Grumble.

So, Max ended up getting his DTaP and HiB boosters. After the doctor left the office to tell the nurses to bring the shots in, I told Max he would have to get a shot and that it would hurt, but it would keep him from getting sick. When the nurses came in, he happily laid down on the table while they got the shots ready and prepped his legs. They did both shots simultaneously -- Max didn't really know what was happening until after it was over, but it broke my heart to see him crinkle up his face, cry, and tell me that it hurt. After a few hugs and sniffles, he was fine and he got to pick out some stickers on the way to the check out desk. His legs seemed pretty sore for the rest of the day and I gave him a dose of Motrin before bed. Hopefully they'll be right as rain tomorrow! I have to say, it's a nice change only having to visit the doctor once a year!