The 15 Month Check Up

Posted on October 19, 2008 in Health & Safety, Little Mochi by little mochi

It was originally scheduled this past Monday, but he had a fever. Since he was getting his immunization shots, I had to cancel the appointment. I couldn’t reschedule the appointment until his fever is gone.

After some Tylenol, Little Mochi’s fever was gone by Wednesday. So Friday morning, I called the pediatrician’s office to see if I could bring him in that afternoon for his shots. They squeezed me in at 4:45 pm.

The nurse told me that I technically should wait at least 4 days after the fever to give him his hots. But since it was only one day, we decided to go forward.

She did the routine check up. Asked about his development, measured his height, weight, and temperature.

Height = 31 inches
Weight = 24.7 lbs
Temp = 99.5.

Uh oh. 99.5 degrees. Since the temperature was measured through the ears, that’s a low grade fever. The doc said it should be ok to give the shots, but it’s really up to the parent to decide if they would rather wait or not.

If I had known that he had a very small fever, I would have scheduled the visit for next Monday. I really didn’t feel comfortable with giving Little Mochi the shot since you never know how they will react to any immunization shots. So I postponed it to next Monday.

Great. Another $10 for the copay plus 20 miles of freeway getting to the office and another 20 miles getting back home. Plus the time. I wish I would have just given him the shot. But at least I know he won’t be reacting differently or more sensitively to the agents in the shot. Little Mochi will also be getting the flu shot so an even more reason not to go through with the immunizations. I have always, always gotten terribly sick after I get a flu shot.

On the physical development side, however, Little Mochi seems to be doing quite well. He is able to feed himself finger foods quite well, drinks out of a straw, is able to chew quite well, and is running now. After visiting my aunt’s kid (who is 5 weeks younger than Little Mochi is and crawls as fast as Little Mochi can walk), he finally learned to crawl. How backwards is that!

The only thing that Little Mochi needs improvement on is his speech. I think he’s a little slow in that area. My cousin’s kid, who is 2 weeks older than Little Mochi, is already has a lot of words in his vocabulary. Little Mochi is still babbling baby talk. He’s quite good at pointing at things and saying “Oh!” but that’s about it. I think he’s almost ready to talk, though. He’s definitely been babbling a lot more these past few weeks.

The Doc did say that we shouldn’t be too concerned about his speech just yet. Yes, he should be able to call Mom or Dad or any other 3 words, but boys tend to be slower than girls. In addition, Little Mochi is surrounded by 3 languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Who wouldn’t get confused if their trying to learn to talk?

If your child has not spoken his first 3 words by 18 months, according to my pediatrician, you should consider seeing a speech therapist. He gave me a number to call in the Northern Orange County area. But if you google Speech Therapist in your area, you should be able to find one. I am reluctant to call because they will teach Little Mochi English. He can learn that in kindergarten. I really would rather have Little Mochi learn Chinese, Cantonese or Mandarin, first so that he can be bilingual. I really want to take advantage of that opportunity.

Don’t let the cost of speech therapy be a reason for not getting your child help. The cost of speech therapy is actually free. It is paid for by our tax dollars.



Comments

3 comments to “The 15 Month Check Up”

  1. Jasmine on October 19th, 2008 11:03 am

    Adrian’s speech therapy (and occupational and physical therapy) is covered via our state’s Early Intervention program. There was a (free) qualification process involved in which a social worker came to our home, asked questions, observed, conducted some tests, and demonstrated that Adrian was sufficiently delayed (in our state: at least 50% in one category, or 25% in two or more categories) to receive services. Our social worker then arranged for the therapists to come out and do evaluations. Once we were qualified, we defined some goals for our Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) and started services. The above process took less than a month, and I think federal guidelines require that all state early intervention programs complete it within 60 days.

  2. little mochi on October 19th, 2008 9:58 pm

    As I was writing this post, I was actually thinking of you and Adrian. I meant to ask you how things were going with him. From your comment above, I am assuming you were able to get the assistance you needed. Last we spoke (or wrote), you mentioned you were waiting…

    How’s Adrian’s progress?

  3. Jasmine on October 25th, 2008 2:09 pm

    Hi Cathy! Thanks for thinking about us …

    Not sure when we last spoke, but a lot has happened in the past year. We hit a roadblock of sorts with respect to Adrian’s feeding issues, and had to have a feeding tube inserted into his stomach. That in itself has led to a ton of new complications, but it has really helped him to thrive nutritionally.

    Adrian’s progress with therapy has been slow, due in no small part to all of the medical issues he has (and still is) going through. However, I think all of us have benefited tremendously from the help and support of Adrian’s therapists. We also have a team of 11 doctors who are following him and working with us!

    We are now approaching a big transition where EI services will be coming to an end (at age 3), and it’s up to the school district to re-evaluate and determine Adrian’s eligibility for special education services. In preparation for this transition, I have been starting to educate myself in special education law (www.wrightslaw.com is a most well-known source of info on the web), gathering all of his records and assessments (he has now seen 4 developmental peds, 2 of whom we have selected to follow his development), setting up appointments with special needs lawyers, signing up for special education workshops, and basically learning about how to advocate for Adrian and his needs as we enter the school system. We are also trying to get Adrian qualified with the Division of Developmental Disabilities and Arizona’s Long Term Care System (aka ALTCS, aka Medicaid) so that we can also continue services within the home.

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