The doctor said he looked good, which he always says. Our biggest remaining concern is Henry's constipation problem (sorry to put this out there Henry, but your fans need to know what is going on with you). The doctor said he believes it is either the dairy or soy that Kate is eating. That was a little frustrating because Kate had gone off dairy and soy for a while and only started eating them again after we got what we thought was the green light from Dr. Hassan. Now he is telling us she needs to go off them again. I think that Kate is going to cut out soy for now and limit the amount of milk she drinks, but still continue to eat cheeses and other dairy items. When Henry was first diagnosed with possible milk/soy allergies he was on a formula that had cows milk and soy in it. He was switched to a soy formula which made things worse. So my belief is that soy is the greater problem.
He advised us to put Henry back on Prevacid. He said some children are on it for years and are ok. Henry has shown some signs of reflux since we took him off it, and it hasn't relieved the constipation problem at all so we will probably put him back on it tomorrow.
We did ask about probiotics to help counteract the effects of the Prevacid. The doctor said that they wouldn't hurt so they were worth a try. However, we are going to wait a while so we aren't making a bunch of changes at once and then can't figure out what is working and what is not. It is hard to hold off on making changes we think will help him but we have to maintain a certain methodology about things to make sure we don't do more harm than good.
We also asked about goat's milk as a supplement to breast milk, with the hopes we could use that instead of Neocate formula, which is about the most foul stuff on the planet. Dr. Hassan said that it is also worth a try because the goat's milk proteins will be different than cow's milk proteins. He talked about how many children have bad reactions to some formulas and not others, even if they are all cow's milk. This is due to a variance in the construction of the proteins. So hopefully Henry will be able to stomach the goat's milk proteins even if he can't handle cow's milk ones. He also mentioned that children have a great supply of B12, so the fact that goat's milk is low in that is not a problem. We will just continue to give him a multivitamin. We gave Henry his first taste tonight, just one ounce which he took cautiously. We will need to keep a close watch on him as we slowly introduce the goat's milk. I really hope he can handle it. Kate, Grandma and I all tasted it ,and it isn't bad. Kate thought it had a bad aftertaste but I liked it.
The doctor got a cell phone call during our visit, and we wrapped things up rather abruptly. Then as we were about to pull out of the parking lot, he walked up to the car to make sure he had answered all our questions. It was very nice of him to make that extra effort.
On our way back Kate had to go to school to teach class in the morning. We decided to take Henry in for a quick visit. We were happy to find Dana in her office. Henry immediately took a liking to her, and she was very excited to get Henry's approval so quickly. He tends to be very reserved with newcomers, choosing to study them for a while. But with Dana he smiled his acceptance right away.
Then we took him down to the office where he was able to meet Nancy, Ellen and Isabel. It was great fun to show him off. He was in a good mood and smiled for everyone. I think he gets very bored at home, and so it is great to take him to new places and watch him absorb his surroundings. It's a great way to get distracted from things like teething pain. I thought it was a bit funny that we took him to the U of A on a day when he was wearing his Washington State t-shirt from his aunt Carolyn. No one made any comment though.
At home he continued his crawling. He seems to be progressing exponentially with it, like he did with sitting. I expect by this weekend he will be zooming from one end of the house to the other, with us wearily trailing behind.
We thought he had a physical therapist visit in the afternoon, but we weren't sure and they never showed up. It is a new therapist that will be taking over from Dorsett. Hopefully we just had our days confused.
We took Henry for a walk tonight. After the walk we sat out on the back patio because it was a very nice night. Roger and Marley decided to chase two deer that were nearby, which had two coyotes trailing behind them. The deer move so fast through the desert that I can't imagine our dogs ever getting close to them. I don't know why the coyotes would be trailing behind the deer, but it is the second time I've seen that. The only thing I can figure is that the coyotes might go for a newborn deer if given the opportunity.
Below is a picture of Henry and I near a blooming cactus and a picture of Kate feeding Henry his first goats milk. The video is of Henry on the back patio auditioning for Stomp!.
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