Thursday, January 8, 2009

15lb 3oz

That's how much Manasseh weighed yesterday, not too bad I suppose for his 6 month check-up.. not too good either, at 4 months he was 14lb 11oz. So he's gained half a pound in 2 months.. personally it sounds like an achievement, but not so good when you're so little. He's dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 10th. Still right in the middle as far as his height goes, his head hasn't grown much either.

So I'm trying to give him more solid foods. Trouble is, he doesn't' want them this week. In fact, he gags when I try to give him baby food. Doesn't mean I've stopped trying, just he's making it difficult. One way or another he'll gain some weight.

As for his head size, I'm a little bit concerned but not sounding an alarm about it, yet. his head size is about the 3rd percentile for babies his age. Babies with head sizes smaller than the 1st percentile are concerned micro cephalic (small headed). He's pushing it. He does appear to have a small ridge on his forehead - my sister pointed this out a few months ago, we think its becoming more apparent now. There's also a flat area on the back right side of his head. These could both be perfectly normal things, and are very normal for a lot of babies. However with the family history of craniosynistosis, I am a bit concerned about it. My doctor does not seem to see it as a big issue, but I am definitly wanting to push for some more attention to his head.

Anyway, our boy is healthy overall, just needing a bit of weight gain for now.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Children's Clothes - Yikes

So, someone had this brilliant idea about helpin protect kids by making a national industry standard requiring testing of ALL products that will be used by kids under 12. This is great, and will help kids be at less risk of lead poisoning.

However.. the problem with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is that it currently appears to include ALL children's products, both new and used. This means that thrift stores, home businesses, and so forth would have to submit everything they sell for testing. Yikes.. that means that our second hand stores will be out of business, as they can't afford to have everything tested.. AND even if they could, in order to test things materials are destroyed.

I personally am a big fan of Salvation Army, Goodwill, any such store like this -- We've got to get to our congressmen and ask for some amendments to this act that protect sellers of used goods!