Last day of updates from our doctors appointment! Last day of disclaimers and reminders to be nice! Lol! For now, anyway 😉 We should ALWAYS be nice.
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The first thing we talked about regarding Rowan was his hearing. I don’t have an especially big concern regarding his hearing, but I did not too long ago. For a refresher, we had his ears checked periodically over many months and there was always fluid in them. He never got startled, and never answered the first time I called him, and I couldn’t figure out if it was his personality or he really couldn’t hear. I took him to a private audiology appointment and we were told there was absolutely no echo back in one of his ears. At that point, I had gone back to Dr. Guselle, and she had referred us to an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) to get the process of ear tubes started. Our specialist wasn’t the most helpful, and said things like “I understand why she says there’s fluid in his ears, but there isn’t.” And he wouldn’t explain any further than that, even when I pressed. He was far more concerned with thinking Rowan “looked like a girl.” So nothing ever came from that. Since time has moved on, its hard to know if his hearing has improved or we’ve just gotten used to it. But this summer, I noticed a big difference in his balance and coordination, and therefore figured it would be worth a second look at his ears. So with ALL that backstory, Dr. Guselle checked his ears and said again, they looked dull and covered. She did one very basic test, where she puffed a little bit of air in his ears to see if his eardrums moved, which they did, which didn’t really tell us much. So she suggested I go back to the ENT and see his audiologist rather than the random Lawson Mall guy.
His balance and coordination is pretty bad, and again, we’re not sure if its just who he is, which is a distracted, busy little dude who doesn’t pay too close of attention to his surroundings. He also tends to walk on his tip toes, which apparently can suggest some muscle developmental/maybe sensory stuff. We’re going to see if the hearing tests turn anything up that might shed some light on some answers, and if not, we might make our way over to occupational therapy. But nothing about any of that feels impending doomy. Its all good.
Onto the biggest thing we needed to talk to Dr Guselle about. The whole milk thing.
We recently picked up on some *ahem* stinky *ahem* issues with Rowan and realized that things had never been quite as they should be. In talking with a few friends, we thought he might be lactose intolerant and decided to give that whole thing a go. Simply switching his milk to almond milk and his yogurt to apple sauce made a HUGE difference! He’d go a few days without dairy and be the most “regular” he’d ever been! But then we’d have a lapse and feed him cheese, and nothing would really change, which was extra confusing, because if dairy were the issue, wouldn’t cheese be part of that? Then questions started flying from a handful of different angles. Is it a dairy thing, or a lactose thing? Is it an allergy, or just a sensitivity, or an intolerance? Guys, I DON’T KNOW! I’m totally new! So I asked Dr. Guselle. She agreed that we were on the right track, and that it seemed like straight up lactose intolerance. She began to load me down wth tips and tricks, and as per usual, left me feeling totally capable, and uplifted, and like this shift wouldn’t actually be as challenging as I had originally thought. She told me that lactose intolerance is very simply the lack of the enzyme needed to properly digest milk. At this point, Rowan isn’t in any pain from lactose. It just makes his poops yuckier than necessary. I told her I’m nervous about trying to accommodate an allergy with a big family, because without milk, we’re without most of the easy kid-friendly favorites. Grilled cheese. Pizza. Macaroni. That brought up the conversation about Lactaid/Lacteez. We did a quick google search and learned that there are little chewable tablets for kids now, as well as drops. Dr Guselle said that if I had to, I could buy him regular cows milk and just add the drops. While I don’t think we’ll do that, its good to know the drops and tablets aren’t JUST for emergencies. I figured we’d need them for going out to other people’s houses or situations like that, but she said we could use them whenever needed. It feels SO good to have resources! If a meal kind of needs dairy, then so be it! (This is mostly the part I’m nervous people will debate me on, so PLEASE don’t! I’ve done my research, and I trust my doctor, and I’m not going to force feed Rowan three tablets every day. Its just so comforting to know we have options, and our easy options aren’t out the window.) So, that all being said, I guess Rowan is offically lactose intolerant now!
This conversation branched into just a general conversation about milk. I had a question about milk SO long ago and felt so silly about it, so if anyone else wants to know, here it all is! What do you switch from whole milk, and what do you switch to? The general Sask Health guidelines suggest that children drink whole milk between nursing/formula until around age two. Obviously there are exceptions, but this is the guideline I’ve heard and am comfortable with. However, I haven’t known really where to go from there, which means that all of my kids still drink whole milk. I know thats perfectly fine, and no one has a weight problem or any reason to be concerned, but I was curious what she figured would be our best move. I told her they drink whole milk, I drink skim milk, Wavy drinks formula, and now Rowan drinks almond milk. My gosh! Add to that, what, some 1% or 2% for a couple of them? Thats FIVE milks for seven people!! Nooooo!! She laughed at my odd predicament and pointed out that everyone, besides Wavy, was past the two year mark, so if we wanted, we could jump to 1% or 2% for the kids. She said either or was fine. They both have the same amount of calcium and vitamin D. It’ll be mostly about the change in taste. I made a joke about continuing to buy whole milk and just blooping some skim in there, and while she laughed at me, she said that would have basically the same effect. That all being said, we picked up some 2% yesterday, so I guess we’ll start there!
All in all, Rowan did really well at the appointment, cooperated well with having his ears checked, and answered Dr. Guselle’s questions well. He was super charming the entire time, smirking at her when she’s glance over at him throughout our conversations. She seemed pretty smitten.
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I think thats it for our appointment! It was loaded, and I think we spent about an hour and a half going through everything. I am SO thankful to have a doctor who makes exceptions and stays late to see as many of us as we need. No fifteen minute appointments for this family! I appreciate her so much. I always leave her office feeling uplifted, and hopeful, and capable, and this appointment was no different. Praise the Lord for good humans and our health care system.
