Conference moira::parenting

    No info on the underdeveloped thyroid but don't expect that the blood
    draw will be a bad experience.  If you are calm and don't act as if it
    is going to hurt him, he is likely to be calm too.  I personally find
    the finger prick to hurt me more than the needle.  My son has had
    several blood tests done and has watched the nurse put the tubing
    around his arm, stick the needle in and then watch the blood flow.  He
    did this first at around 9 mos and still does the whole process without
    a frown or tear.  He is now 20 mos old.
    
    Good luck

    When your child is having the blood test, see if the technician will
    let you sit in the chair and hold him on your lap.  This will make him
    feel more secure and you can get a good grip on his other arm to keep
    him from interfering with the process.
    
    It WILL be worse for you than him...
    
    Been there...done that..
    
    Linda

    I have no personal experience, but I do remember being with someone, 
    whose baby *REFUSED* to put any weight on their legs.  As soon as their
    feet touched the ground, they'd go limp.  
    
    I don't remember FOR SURE who it was -- but if it's who I'm thinking
    of, they're FINE now. (I'm pretty sure it's her).
    
    -Patty

My daughter sat up at 9 months and only after evaluation and intervention by a
physical therapist. She happened to have high muscle tone...we won't get into
it.

Does your baby try to raise herself on all 4's, crawl, turn over to get at a
toy, etc. Is she on target with language, manipulation of objects ? I know you
sit around every saturday morning watching every movement and taking notes ;>)

I have heard of low muscle tone being associated with other developmental
delays. I don't know anything about thyroid conditions; maybe there are 
other reasons your pedi would suspect that sort of thing.

I would encourage you to ask your pedi for a referral to an Early 
Intervention Program or a developmental clininc (there's one at Children's
Hospital in Boston). Your baby is still pretty young and we don't expect
babies to be doing much at that age but a specialist will look at subtle
things to determine if the child is on track developmentally or if there
are other things going on that require some intervention. A doctor (pardon 
the slammer) may look only at things that are amenable to drug therapies
and be slow to look for things that suggest referral outside the MD field.

Don't panic but don't wait too long if there are other things indicating 
developmental delays. 
Good luck.

    Well the blood test was awful.  It took three sticks and they still
    couldn't find the vein.  I think at one point I was ready to grab
    the nurses neck and shake her :) .. actually, I know they were doing
    the best they could..little tiny vein kept on rolling.  They finally
    did two heel pricks (which was no picnic at the beach) and squeezed
    his foot for five minutes trying to fill a small vile.  I am waiting
    for the results this afternoon.
    
    My pedi is wonderful and had suggested physical therapy regardless
    of the outcome of the test.  She is totally supportive of getting
    whatever it takes and always does it very quickly when needed.  Once
    we learn what exercises can help strenghten his lower body tone,
    Kindercare will also support the program and work with him each day.
    
    Chaz will be 9 months on the 13th.  He is very coordinated and strong
    (upper body)..lower body, well he does alot of rolling :) ... he can
    get from one side of the living room to the other in a wink just
    rolling sideways.  He is just starting to scoot (Rambo Crawl) forward,
    but seems to prefer the folling sideways.  He doesn't get up on all
    fours yet and do the rocking thing.  As far as bearing weight, he will
    mostly pull his legs up, but when he stands on them he is does it well.
    
    I personally think he is just taking it easy and not totally
    interested.  But I would never want to miss something on the bigger
    picture side, so I am glad that I brought it to my pedi's attention.
    
    I'll update after I get the CBC/Thyroid Panel results.
    
    The bright side of the morning was my OBGYN and Infertility Doc are
    all in the same building and we hadn't seen them in about 7 months...
    so we did a quick visit.  I took Chelsea Rose with me, so big sister
    could help keep Chaz distracted during the blood test and also to
    let her see what a blood draw out of the arm was like.  She was 
    a great "Big Sister Helper" at the test, I couldn't have made it
    without her bouncing around trying to get Chaz to smile.
    
    ..Lori

    Christian is 9.75 months old and still does not crawl.  He gets around
    fine by rolling, so what's the point?  He was doing that limp leg thing
    when you hold him too until this weekend.  He stood on my mother's
    couch for a good 5 minutes (leaning against the back) watching the kids
    outside.  Maybe he just needs a reason.
    
    BTW, my doctor wasn't worried about the slow development, she said boys
    are always slower.  He just got his first tooth at Christmas (and now
    has 6!), so that was sorta late too.
    
    Cheryl