Jordans and Jammies

We took Caleb to his 15-month appointment on the 15th of this month. We tried out a new pediatrician this time because our original pediatrician's office was just getting way too busy. Actually, they were always busy but we stayed there because we liked the pediatrician and also because she was our referring doctor for Caleb's GI specialist. Now that we are past the GI stuff, we decided to go to another office. This new doctor was recommended to me by a friend. My main concern was wait time and my friend, Jaime, says she never has to wait forever at this office...so we gave her a shot. WELL...apparently if you don't want to wait, you should never go on a Monday, mid-morning, during cold/flu season, and right before a holiday....which is when we went. We waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes and then another hour before we even saw the doctor!! Needless to say, we were not happy and Caleb definitely wasn't happy. You can only contain a 15-month-old for so long...and 1 hr 45 min is way too long.

Anyway, because we'd been waiting so long and Caleb was so over it, we put the "plug" in (his paci) to calm him down. When the Dr. Ramsey walked in, one of the first things she asked about was how much he sucks his paci. Rhett said (very nicely) that we usually don't just give it to him during the day...but since we'd been waiting so long (hint, hint), we gave it to him to calm him down. She did not pick up on that little hint and simply moved on with the appointment (after suggesting that we break him of the paci habit). Because he was "plugged" up and agitated, he was making lots of grunting noises and b/c of this, she asked us if he made that grunting noise all the time. I told her that he does that more than using actual words (although he does use some words too). She seemed to think that he "grunts" too much and suggested that we ignore his grunting all together and praise him like crazy when he uses words or consonant sounds. Honestly, I don't think this part of her evaluation was really fair b/c of the circumstances. He was so upset and we had been waiting for forever. We are trying to encourage more consonant sounds instead of the grunting, though.

So then she asked if we had any concerns of our own and I asked her about his knee-walking and about how he stands on his tip-toes. She did not seem too concerned with the fact that he's not walking yet (apparently we aren't to worry about that until he hits 18 months), but she was a little concerned with the fact that he doesn't consistently flatten his feet when standing. He does flatten his left foot to stand up and then again when he goes back down to his knees, but he does not flatten his right foot. His left foot also rolls inward a lot of the time. SO - she recommended that Caleb see a physical therapist.

Everything else checked out just fine and he's a healthy boy! Before she left the room, I asked as nicely as I could if the wait was always 1 hr 45 min and of course, she said no. I believe her but mostly b/c I believe Jaime who recommended her to us. I know Jaime would not steer us astray and she would not take Haven there if the wait was always that long (she switched from our pedi as well b/c of the same reason). So we are going to give her another chance. We did like her and she seemed very thorough and maybe a little over-cautious, but that is better than waiting around for something to really be wrong.

So, onto the "Jordans and Jammies" part of this post! We took Caleb to his first PT appointment this past Monday at a place nearby called TEAM Approach. His therapist is named Cheryl and she was really, really nice, upbeat, and positive. She felt his leg muscles and doesn't feel like there is anything anatomically wrong. She thinks it may just be a habit he has formed (I'm talking about the tip-toeing and not flattening his feet). She also said that it is not uncommon for kids to prefer a method of getting around other than walking if that other method gets them around super fast....and he can knee walk so fast it's crazy - it borders on running sometimes! He can also crawl really fast.

She suggested that we buy him some high-top shoes to support his ankles and get his feet in more of a "flat-footed" position when he stands up. So I hunted and hunted for some high-tops (I really wanted a non-athletic style) but ended up just buying him some "Air Jordans" from Kids Foot Locker. Man, little tiny shoes are expensive! Thankfully, these were on sale and I got them for $32. The really cute, non-athletic, high-top shoes that I found online were $50 plus s/h and I just couldn't justify that. Before I bought anything, Rhett joked that Caleb was going to be sporting some Jordans....and he is. He's supposed to wear them a couple of hours each day while he's playing at home. He hates them! And...he still tip-toes on his right foot so I'm not sure how this is going to work. There are also a few other things we are to do with him (hard to explain) so we are trying everything we can. We will be going back weekly...I guess until we see progress? Not sure really. Anyway, these pictures are from the first full day we had the shoes and I just put them on him after breakfast. He was still in his jammies so it looked kinda funny!


A rare moment in this house...Caleb standing flat-footed with BOTH feet! This lasted long enough for me to snap the picture but it's proof that he CAN do it.



Aren't they cute on his little feet?