Endocrinologist

We took my son to the pediatric endocrinologist yesterday to be evaluated for falling off his growth curve.  It was a good visit and I am glad we took him to see her.  While my son is very tiny, he is also very healthy overall which is something about which she commented.  She noticed something that I had not when looking at his growth curves - his weight actually fell off before his height did.  This might be an indication that his growth issues have a nutritional component.  What exactly that means is unclear because calorically he consumes as many if not more than his sister who  has no growth issues.  Therefore, his problem may be types of calories rather than amount - meaning he's not getting enough protein & fat in his diet (this would make sense since my son prefers grains, fruits, & veggies to protein/higher fat foods).

She examined my son, talked to us and gathered information, and then sent him for some bloodwork to check growth hormone levels, nutritional deficiencies, and GI disorders (namely celiac disease).  Her gut feeling after examining him was that everything would be normal.  She referred us to a nutritionist and our appointment with her is later in the summer.  We won't get the results back for a couple of weeks.

While I am thrilled that we are going to get some answers, I felt pretty down last evening after the appointment.  There is nothing like someone telling you that your kid is too skinny to make you feel like you're doing something wrong as a mother.  During dinner, I found myself scrutinizing every morsel of food he put in his mouth and started getting anxious when he gobbled up the fruit/veggies and left the chicken...I even ended up bargaining with him and saying that if he ate all his chicken he could have a treat (which is food no-no #1!!).   

I need to spend some time in prayer and thought over the next few weeks.  Since my husband and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow (without the kids - hooray!), I'll have some time to do this - in addition to kayaking, hiking, surfing lessons and snorkeling, of course!  :)  Most people when they look at the activities my husband and I plan on our vacations wonder how we can call it a vacation since our schedule is usually chock full.  We're not "lay by the pool and read" kind of folks (although we do have one afternoon on this trip scheduled for that).  Aloha!

USDA Dietary Guidelines and MyPlate

I'm going to put on my healthcare worker hat for this short post.  The USDA updated the dietary guidelines in 2010 and launched the MyPlate initiative this month.  I am excited about MyPlate which has replaced the old food pyramid.  Ever since I was in pharmacy school and started reading a lot on nutrition and health (for my own personal benefit) I have thought that the food pyramid did not represent the best mechanism for healthy eating.  It got a little better when it was updated, but was not very easy to explain to patients or to practice.  After all, what exactly is a serving???  The plate is a much easier tool to explain and to use.  I have put the links below for anyone interested.  Happy Eating!

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DietaryGuidelines.htm

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/MyPlate.htm

Celebrating Individuality

It is amazing how different my children are from each other in personality, likes, skills, and temperament. Reading 1 Peter 4:10-11, I was reminded this week that each of my precious children has been given a specific personality and set of talents by our Maker.  God has a wonderful plan for each of them and as their mom, I should strive to nurture and appreciate each child's talents and tailor my parenting to their individual traits.

Last year I was one of the helpers in my oldest son's pre-K Sunday School class and this year I am serving in this role for my daughter's class.   My oldest son is almost always comfortable in his surroundings and is rarely intimidated by new people or new situations.  On the other hand, my daughter is quite a bit more cautious.  She has been in the pre-K class for 3 weeks and is just now starting to come out of her shell.  Until recently I was a little concerned about how little she participated compared to her brother.  What I have come to realize is that in actuality, she is perfectly fine - it's me that sometimes doesn't do a good job of navigating the differences between her and her brother.  Rather than appreciating and accepting that she is more cautious, I kept trying to "help" her act more like her brother because that's what I was used to.

Despite being slower to warm up to new situations, my daughter is great at focusing for longer periods of time and completing tasks quickly and accurately.   My mommy goal this week to to take some extra time to appreciate the individuality of each of my three kids' and to adapt my parenting to see what works best for each child's personality and temperament.

Mommy & Big Kids Time

My husband had a business trip close to where the grandparents live so he took our youngest with him.  My baby doesn't turn 2 until September so we have a few more months to capitalize on him flying as a lap child instead of buying him a seat.

While I miss my youngest very much, I have had a WONDERFUL time with my older two kids.  We ran errands on Sunday after church, Monday we had fun day of swimming followed by a matinee movie.  Yesterday my daughter stayed home from swimming and school b/c she had a low grade fever, but she perked up enough by the end of the day for us to attend family night at Chick Fil A.  Here they are with their fake beards and blue & blingy fingers.

Not only do my husband and youngest fly home today but my parents also arrive!  We will have a fun few days with them and then it will be time to get ready for our trip to Hawaii!

As an update on activities, my oldest is progressing right along with his swimming.  Yesterday, they worked on backstroke and he is doing a great job!  My Olympic triathlon is back on and I have found a few sprint ones to do in July and August to prepare for it.  On Saturday my husband and I rode 27 miles and I'm running between 6-7 on my weekly long runs and will start working that mileage up in July.  I'm swimming once a week with the masters team at our club.  I absolutely love the tri sport - I just feel so overall strong and healthy when I'm training for them because the 3 sports really compliment each other well.

With this race, I'm working on figuring out training nutrition and specifically focusing one what types of calories I consume during exercise and in what form.  What I have been doing so far, and it has worked okay is to eat something small and dense about 30 mins prior to exercising (I usually eat a handful of almonds), and then consuming a power gel or chomp every hour thereafter.  I noticed during my last half marathon that I tuckered out toward the end and I think a lot of that was due to poor nutrition during the race.  I want to prevent that from happening again.

Since I'm eating like a horse with all this training I'm quite the connoisseur of summer treats.  If anyone wants a delicious summer treat, I highly recommend the Chick Fil A banana pudding milkshake!  It's wonderful!  On Friday after swimming with the kids at the pool I picked up Chick Fil A for dinner and decided to try that flavor - I meant to share it with my husband but had drunk it all up before he could even have a sip.  SO YUMMY!

After 1 Week of Swim Practice

It has only been a week since my big kids started swimming on a pre swim team and I am absolutely amazed with their progress - especially with my oldest son!  He went from barely tolerating water on his face to doing water volcanoes and swimming with his whole head underwater.  Toward the end of the week he even took his first few strokes of freestyle!  Mommy is thrilled! 

His sister is enjoying it and making progress, but she's not taking to it as quickly as her brother just yet.  She is also a year younger so I'm not at all concerned.  She's one of the littlest on the team (and is so cute in her little suit and goggles).  

We are at the pool once or twice every day and loving it!  I get in with my youngest while the older 2 have practice.  Additionally, one of the coaches graciously volunteered to coach a small masters team twice a week so I'm getting some swim coaching as well - I haven't had that since I was 16!  I was told (very nicely of course) that my stroke has gotten a little sloppy over the years and I was given some drills to do to help.  Swimming fun for the whole family!  

After vacillating back and forth I have decided to do the Olympic tri in September. The swimming training got so much easier this week with the masters team at our pool, so I think it's do-able now!  My husband and I are headed out for a bike ride this morning.  Summer is so much fun!

Constitutional Growth Delay

After a busy morning at the pool, I took all 3 kiddos to the doctor for their well child checkups.  What a circus!  My youngest is at that age when he is into EVERYTHING!  He was knocking over medical equipment and running up and down the halls.  My younger 2 received a clean bill of health.  My daughter has a faint heart murmur but it's not affecting her growth and development so it's not a concern.  With my oldest son we realized that his growth rate just isn't increasing like it should.  While most kids grow 3-4 inches per year (even if they're on the low end of the curve the rate should be about the same), he had only grown 2.  We saw this pattern last year and have been tracking it for a year to see if the rate would increase but unfortunately it did not.

His doctor considered sending him to an endocrinologist immediately but then decided to order a bone age (taken from x-ray) first.  If his bone age was that of a 4 or 5 year old then there would be cause for concern, but if his bone age is younger than his actual age then that means that he has a lot of growth potential left and should eventually catch up.  So after their well child checks we walked down to radiology around 4:00pm praying that they would be able to fit us in without much of a wait.  My younger 2 were pretty cranky since both had received shots.

Believe it or not, we walked up to radiology and they were free right then!!!  It was such a blessing!  My son walked in, had his hand x-ray, and was done in less than 5 minutes!  He was thrilled to be able to see the x-ray of his hand (he was all about x-rays and bones about a year ago).  I figured it would be a day or 2 before we got the results, but then at 5:30pm we received a phone call from his pediatrician.  The radiologist had already read it and she had the results!  Now that's service - it was so nice to get his results so quickly!!!!

In the end his bone age is significantly younger than his age - he turned 5 in May and his bone age was that of a 2.9 yr old!!!  That explains why I didn't even notice when I grabbed a pair of 3T shorts for him the other day and they fit. ;)  So, he has been diagnosed with constitutional growth delay.  While I am sad, overall this is good news because his growth potential is normal and most kids achieve a normal adult height.  I'm also glad to have some answers.  CGD kids grown and develop later than their peers.  Most of the negative outcomes in this population stem from poor self esteem.  I plan to do a LOT of reading on this in the next few weeks.

Swimming, races, and work - Oh my!

Hard to believe that June is here already!  This week kicks off the first big week of swim team for us.  This is the first year that my kids are able to participate on our country club's pre-team.  They had their first practice Friday and have it once or twice a day from now until mid July. 

Adding swimming to our schedules has made me re-evaluate my own schedule.  I had signed up for an Olympic distance tri at the end of the summer and am now wondering if that was a good idea.  As my kids are getting older and as my & my husband's careers develop it's getting harder for me to train for races like I used to.  Quite honestly, I'm having a hard time with that.  For so long training for races and working to improve my times has been part of my identity and something I enjoy so very much.  From running races I transitioned to tri's and have loved every minute.  It's hard not to having the time to dedicate to training any more and it's becoming a bit of a stressful.

There are a lot of positives to this.  After all, the reason my time is limited is because my kids are growing and thriving and getting involved in more activities and school.  It's a blessing that I'm being asked to do more as a faculty member because frankly that means I'm doing a good job.  My department head just asked me to chair a search committee and I've already got another committee to chair, a new class to teach in the fall, and a podium presentation to deliver at a national meeting in a few weeks (presentation due this Friday - YIKES!).  My husband's career is going wonderfully as well and he loves what he does!  These are all good things!

So, I've decided to cut back on training and racing.  There is an all women's sprint tri at the end of August that I will do.  Instead of the Olympic tri, I've set my sites on 2 half marathons for the fall.  Training for a running race is MUCH more do-able b/c it's just one sport.  It's will be challenging but not stressful.  The best part - when I spend hours at the pool having fun today after only a quick workout, I won't feel guilty that I missed a training day - how nice!!! :)