Dr. Zibners.com

How to know if your child's illness or injury is really an emergency

articles

The Bell Curve

Just got back from another visit to the pediatrician. Nothing serious, just doing our usual weight, height, shot thing. I liked our doctor a lot before today, but when he gave Zoe a pile of M&M’s to eat while he got her shots ready, I decided I love him. Especially when he told me that I would have to bite them in half before giving them to her, hard, round slippery candies that they are. Oh, gosh, if I have to.

Anyway, regular checkups at the doctor’s are important for all little kids because it’s a chance to pick up problems early and identify issues while it’s still pretty easy to intervene. Plus, it’s fun, isn’t it? Ok, not the shot part. But the growth charts always make for a good time in our family.

Zoe was born at the 50th percentile. She was on the 50th percentile at her 1 month, 3 month and 6 month checkups. Absolutely average. But “better average than stupid,” is our motto. Today she was (hold your breath!) 50th percentile for weight, although she’s sprouted up to the 75th in height. I was actually shocked that her weight wasn’t higher; put a cupcake out on the table last week and the child actually growled.

Little Eva. My tiny little girl. When she was born she wasn’t even on the curve and it wasn’t until she was 3 months old that she began to kiss the bottom of the growth chart, although we weren’t worried since her growth was steady and developmentally she is absolutely fine. But it really hits home the difference between these two when she measured a dainty 9th percentile in height and was barely sitting on the 2nd percentile line for weight. Thank goodness she has 10 more teeth than Zoe, because she needs to be able to defend herself from Brutus over there. (Zoe was toddling around the office carrying the very heavy toy towers. We call her Bam Bam.)

But after the fun, came the jabs. Just to remind you that I do put my money where my mouth is, Zoe got the chicken pox shot and her last Prevnar (the schedule is slightly different here in the UK). Eva didn’t like it but she took her MMR like a champ. I got some nasty looks but 5 minutes later all was right with the world. I bought some chocolate rice cakes for after dinner anyway. Mommy guilt. And I’ll probably have to taste them first to make sure they are okay…

Dr. Lara Zibners, Feb 15, 2011

Find more articles like this one:

• Topic:

• Keywords:

Comments

Discuss this article.

No Comments yet.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.