Finally we’re getting back on track! We usually have his appointment 2 weeks or so after he turns the age of the appointment so we went to his 9 month visit on Monday which was only a couple days after he turned 9 months. I went to this appointment on my own because Zach had to quit work early the next day for our pictures and there weren’t going to be any shots 🙂
The timing of this appointment sucked…2:15! Kye goes down for a nap at 12:45 and doesn’t wake up until 3:30 or so. I felt sooo guilty waking him up early. I dressed him in a cute yet casual outfit and had him sleep in it so I could just pick him up and go. I got him at 1:45 and he was so precious. He opened his eyes then kept going back to sleep. I can’t stand waking a sweet sleeping baby!
I let him keep his paci and the monkey for the car ride but he never did fall back asleep. I packed a MILLION toys and things to do because last time we sat in the waiting room for an hour and a half! This time, of course since I was prepared to wait, we only waited about 15 min before we went back!
Here are his stats for this month: 21.9 lb (75th percentile), 29 3/4 inches long (90th percentile), and 18 1/8 inches head circumference (75th percentile). Even though he’s still a BIG boy, he’s actually right where he should be for HIM. He has been in the 75th-90th percentiles pretty much since birth so if he suddenly went down to the 50th or something it would actually be bad ya know?
It’s funny because Zach gets soooo pumped about his height. Yeah, he’s tall for his age but he’s also ROUND for his age. I explained to Zach that if he was mega tall then he’d be moving up in sizes due to the length of his pants being too short…instead he moves up in sizes because his pants can’t buckle around that tummy! All the 9 month sizes don’t buckle but they are perfect in the length!
We actually saw the legit dr. this time which was nice. All of my questions had to do with food. Here they are, along with his answers:
- cows milk: Dr. Griner said the same thing Stephanie said last time which is that at 10 1/2 months I can start mixing cows milk with his breast milk or formula and at 11 months he can be on 100% cows milk. With my weaning he said that I need to stop the night feeding first (I think he assumes I feed Kye right before I lay him down to sleep which I don’t) and that I need to get Kye 100% off the breast before introducing cows milk as having a bottle and the breast is confusing enough and throwing whole milk in the mix will just make it harder on him.
- sippy tips: He told me that everyone has a hard time with the transition to the sippy. He said I should not worry about pushing it too much until he’s done with the breast as, again, it’ll be harder for him to really take to it when he knows the next feeding he’ll get to nurse. When we get back from skiing I plan to offer his milk in a sippy at 3:00 then if he doesn’t drink it I don’t stress (or feed him anything else) then offer it at his 6:20 feeding and then never go back to the bottle again! He suggested trying a sippy with a straw so I bought one but you have to bite and suck and that’s so complicated for a 9 month old! I offered him water in it. While he enjoyed chewing on the straw, he never actually got any water.
- meat: Dr. gave us the go ahead on introducing meat into Kye’s diet. He said anything is fine except beef. I believe that meat isn’t needed until well after one year old but I’m trying a little here and there (so far not very positive results)
- eat “real” food: I asked about when Kye should make the transition from baby food to real food and Dr. Griner said we can start that now! I’m sooo nervous about it because nutrition. So my plan is to just continue to feed baby food, offering some real food during and after, then starting to ease off the baby food once he masters the sippy (I’m hoping that’ll be by Jan)
- nutrition: GAH I need help with this! He said there isn’t a certain guideline to follow when it comes to infant/toddler nutrition. SO ANNOYING!
- probiotics: I took this supplement while nursing for 100 days as my preacher’s wife recommended it to help with my yeast issues. Now I hear about it ALL the time and all the benefits it has for us all! It helps build up a healthy immune system which is awesome. I truly believe that the 100 days I took it is one of the reasons Kye hasn’t had a legit sickness yet! I want to find a way to have it in Kye’s diet even if it means a supplement but Dr. Griner said that they only give it to them if they are sick. I’ll discuss this more in a minute.
- Vitamin D: I’ve also read about how many children have vitamin d deficiencies and asked about giving Kye a supplement for that. Dr. said since we live in the south and I take him on walks, etc, that he’s fine and doesn’t need it.
He looked Kye over real quick and said everything looked good. He didn’t really ask me any questions or anything. He did offer me the flu shot and I didn’t know what to do!!! Zach wasn’t with me and he’s the shot parent and I’m just not big on them. I get all his vaccines like they all say to do but I just don’t see the need to give him extra shots all the time. I’m not saying I believe in the whole autism thing in relation to vaccines but why give it to him if he doesn’t truly need it? I stay home all day, he’s been breastfed for so long, he’s very healthy, and when we go out I’m very careful. I asked him if I could call Zach and see and we talked about it and then I just felt like I didn’t want to give it to him. I’m a big believer in following my gut as a parent and my gut said no so I said no and we left!
It’s probably not a good sign that I rarely leave his dr. office feeling good. I’m usually pretty annoyed. This time it bothered me that Dr. Griner shrugged off the probiotics thing so quickly. I feel like he’s so busy with so many patients that he doesn’t have time to stay up to speed on the newest stuff out there ya know? I also didn’t like that he didn’t look Kye over very well, even ask about him crawling or other milestones, etc. I know a friend who goes to the same dr and she has had issues with this as well. I just feel like it’s a quick check and then he tries to bolt for the door. I felt rushed asking my questions and I actually felt rather stupid asking them. I honestly feel like we will eventually switch pediatricians. I should feel like my child matters to his doctor even if he doesn’t ya know? And yeah, Dr. Griner and his staff are ALWAYS nice and they remember our names and such but I just don’t feel any kind of connection. Maybe I’m just used to Stacy, my obgyn dr, who is amazing and awesome and everything you could want. Maybe I’m too hard on Dr. Griner. Anyone else have any pediatrician issues? Should I switch? Stick it out?
Kye was very good for his appointment though! And did AWESOME without his full nap. I’m always impressed by my child! They did say that the next time we come (for his 12 month visit) he’ll be using the “big boy” scale that you stand on instead of sitting in it! So exciting! His birthday is the same week as my brother’s wedding so we had to book the appointment a little later than 12 month which annoys me (I guess I was just very annoyed that day huh?) but oh well. And Daddy will be at that one too as it’ll be shots again! Yuck!
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he is SO BIG! Don't worry about the nutrition. I have no advice- but I have been stressed about Macy's eating and all of a sudden- she will eat people food. She loves chicken, quiche, hashbrowns… etc real food… She basically skipped the pureed stuff. Glad I didn't buy one of those things to make my own baby food!!!
It is probably better to educate yourself than to ask the doctor.
Dear Knot, we appreciate your opinion, but we do not agree that educate yourself it is better. Yes, self-education is very important, but you have to have in your mind, that there are specific things, which cannot be learned just by reading the literature, so in this case, the doctor should be asked. Best regards, our team pediatras