Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Giving the Stink Eye

OK good. So we're not bad parents. We finally took Kirk in to the doctor yesterday morning to have his eye checked out. It's been looking slightly crossed for a few months now. I called and talked to Doc about it back in...late November I think and she told me not to worry unless it seemed like it was getting worse. Well, I don't know if it was getting worse or not but more and more people noticed it. Then again, it could be because they were looking for it. My mom has been totally guilt-trip-inducing freaked out about it and passed that on to my sister and her insane MIL and just ugh! Leave us alone!

Doc called it plagiocephaly and said it's pretty common these days. You see, with all of the SIDS hysteria, babies are put down to sleep on their backs now. And that causes them to get flat heads. It also necessitates Tummy Time and causes slower crawling development. So apparently Kirk's got an asymmetrical head and one eye is literally in front of the other. Causing him to look cross-eyed when not really. She tested the eye muscles as best as she could as a GP and doesn't think there's anything else happening. We still need to take him in to a specialist (do they have pediatric optometrists?) to make sure but basically, he'll grow out of it by the time he's 4 or 5. In extreme cases the kids have to wear a helmet to reshape their skulls. But she said that she's had patients with more severe flattening than Kirk has and they haven't needed a helmet.

Doc also told us she was truly amazed at his language development for a two-year-old boy. That was nice to hear from a professional for a change, instead of "interested parties" such as grandparents. Heh.

3 comments:

Jill said...

Do you need to see an eye doctor or some sort of pedatric doctor? I took Liv to my eye doctor just to get a more thorough check-up before Kindergarten. They happened to have someone there who isn't a pediatric specialist, but who has worked with kids quite a bit. If you would like the number let me know.

Anonymous said...

Hi Belsum, This is Hank and Vi's mom. I'm totally a slacker on the comments section, but couldn't resist on this one. They do have pediatric opthamologists as I had to bring Violet a couple months back for eye hemmorages (scary!). Turns out all was OK, and I really liked how specialized the pediatric clinic was. It was amazing watching those docs get kids to cooperate - even an 8 month old! Anyway, the place I went is called Associated Eye Care. There's offices in St.Paul, Stillwater, and Lake Elmo (that's where I went). I'm sure Kirk will grow out of it, like they said. He sure is a cute and funny little kid. I've enjoyed reading your blog the last couple years and "comparing notes" between Kirk and Henry. They sound so much alike! Good luck and good times, Julie

belsum said...

Thanks for the recommendations, jilly and Mrs. fez bear! Doc actually did give me a couple of referrals that I'll check out. Still, it's good to know you've both had positive experiences. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to the appointment...