Allie had her 7 year old check-up yesterday. I can't believe my baby girl will be 7 in 11 days, but I'll dwell on that another day. For today, the details of yesterday. Allie is now 46 inches tall and weighs 51 pounds. I need to measure Jaelyn. Just from looking at them, I'd guess Allie is 2 inches taller and I know she's 6 pounds heavier. Jaelyn is going to be a petite munchkin when she grows up.
Allie is healthy and eats well. Her doctor had only one concern...Allie snores. She also does some funny breathing things when she sleeps. These can be signs of sleep apnea so we are going to be doing a sleep study (if I can get the scheduler to call me back!). Dan's sleep apnea is treated with a cpap machine. I asked the doctor how they treat kids. Not a cpap - they do surgery and remove their adnoids and tonsils. I'm struggling with giving her meds (more in a second). I can't imagine letting someone put her to sleep and remove parts of her body. I know, I'm jumping ahead of myself and if it is sleep apnea, lack of oxygen can cause major long term problems so we'll do whatever we have to do.
My concern going into this appointment was Allie's behavior problems (which sleep apnea and lack of good sleep can cause, but I don't believe are the main cause). Allie has always been a free spirit. She's happy go lucky and pretty much does whatever she wants to do. I love those things about her and think they are positive traits for someone to have. I would love being as self confident as she is. She doesn't care what anyone else thinks. She's always happy, even when her free spirit gets her into trouble. It's been getting her into a lot of trouble in school. She's slightly below grade level in reading and in math. I think she's doing great considering she has so much trouble focusing on lessons. She has trouble sitting still and is constantly fidgeting. She's like Tigger...forever bouncing. I went into the appointment with behavior forms from all of her teachers with the "sometimes" and "often" boxes checked for most of the behaviors. Her pediatrician put her in the gray area for ADHD...maybe, maybe not. She agreed to let us try meds to see if they will help her. We started on the lowest dose of an ADHD medicine this morning. I was fine getting the prescription filled yesterday and then I read the fact sheet and all the side effects. Oh my word! A friend told me she calls them scare sheets and she's right. I'll monitor and check in with her teachers this month and then go back and talk to the doctor in 30 days. We'll continue, readjust, or discontinue the medicine from there. I don't want to change Allie's personality. I just want to help her slow down so she doesn't fall further behind in school. She's so smart. I want her to be successful and I really believe she can be.
Just curious if you have tried caffine! My oldest 7 is the spitting image of your daughter. Because of other family Heath reasons we can't put her on meds. I was reading a study about how caffine can have the same effect. It seems to work for us. We only give it to her in small doses and when she really needs it to help keep her focused. Thought I would help. I know how stressful it can be.
ReplyDeleteKiley