Yesterday Wyatt had his 2nd high risk infant appt.
His official weight is 13 lbs. 4 oz and his length is 23 3/4 inches! He's gained exactly 11 lbs and 10 inches since birth. I can't believe how fast this little guys is growing
At his appt he was given the Bayley test. This took about an hour and what they did was give him toys and observe how he would react or what he would do with the different objects. They showed him pictures and made noises to see if he would look at them and then put him on the floor to test his gross motor skills. The point of the test is to see if he is developmentally on track, or if he is delayed.
Wyatt's assessment was kind of all over the place. For some things he tested low. For example, he was grumpy and wouldn't look at the pictures that were being shown to him, so he got a zero for that section. And he wouldn't hold things in both hands at the same time, he only liked to have one thing in one hand at a time. He wouldn't raise his head while he was on his tummy, he doesn't roll over and he tightened up his muscles and wouldn't let her test his range of motion {that one isn't unusual for him, it's really hard to get him to even let me test his range of motion at home.} Because of this he tested developmentally delayed in his gross motor skills.
However on other things he tested high. For example, a big plastic teacup was placed in front of him to pick up. Most kids will pick it up by grabbing the rim or will pick it up with two hands. What did Wyatt do? He picked up the cup by the handle! Which is way advanced for his age. The cup was put in front of him about 4 different times just to see if he would pick it up differently, but every time he went straight for the handle. He tested high in fine motor skills.
Almost everything else he was tested on showed him to be either right on track or the low end of average.
I was told to
-continue his weekly early intervention appts with the regional center
-increase his occupational therapy from 2 times a month to once a week
and they want him to start receiving physical therapy twice a week.
Hopefully all of these extra appointments will help get him caught up!
He will catch up. It's a great thing that he's already in therapy. You will probably find that some things will be behind for his age due to the ichthyosis, while others he will outgrow and are more things that just took time because of the prematurity. Doctors don't stop using adjusted age until age 2.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my oldest was a newborn. I was in an online group of January birth babies. Cookie was due Jan 31 but showed up Dec 27th. Everyone else's baby started smiling right on cue, between 9 and 14 weeks. And there I was, still waiting. It didn't happen for several weeks more. And at 12-14 months, most of those babies started walking. Cookie? He waited for 18 months and took his first steps at the FIRST conference.
Now that he's 10, he's still very behind on handwriting. His scrawl looks like something a 1st grader would write, but it has to do more with the pain from cracks in his hands than it does his prematurity, which he has long since overcome.