Ethan saw a different pediatrician today to get a second opinion on his weight issue. This appointment went much better than the other one this week.

The doctor said that Ethan should not have been judged against the full term baby chart. He said that preemies take time to catch up on their growth, so there is a special preemie growth chart that Ethan should be plotted on until he is 2 years old. I had heard of the preemie growth chart, but our other pediatrician didn’t use it and instead plotted Ethan on the full term chart based on his actual age. He looked over Ethan’s previous measurements and plotted his weight on the preemie growth chart based on his adjusted age (based on when he was DUE not when he was born). He was AVERAGE or slightly above average weight until around 9 months old. At 9 months old, he was around the 35th percentile and now at 1 year, he is somewhere around the 10th percentile. Not at all underweight. Perfectly normal for a preemie. Thank goodness!!!

He said that at this point, his slow weight gain is not a problem. He said that although Ethan only gained 1/2 a pound in the last 3 months, he did gain something. As long as he continues to gain, everything is OK. His advice was to fortify his milk up to 22 calories. Since Ethan is nursing and not drinking pumped milk, we can’t do that. However, I did buy some pediasure that I can send to daycare. If he has a couple of ounces of pediasure every day, that will be a good calorie boost. I also let him try peanut butter this week and that has been a huge hit. We’ll plump him up in no time.

Also, they took a much more accurate length measurement on Ethan. He is somewhere around 29″ to 29 1/4″, which puts him just a little taller than average for his adjusted age. He has gotten so tall lately

We won’t continue to see this new doctor though. He is out of network for our insurance and I didn’t like his bedside manner. I liked that he explained things well and that he provided rational and logical answers. But I just didn’t like his attitude in general. I won’t go into details here.

Soooo… I am glad to know that I am an excessive worrier and that he is a perfectly healthy and thin baby. Deep down I knew he was fine because he looks and acts fine, but the uncertainty and the inconsistency of the pediatrician’s opinion certainly had my mind spinning. And I didn’t want to ignore an impending problem, either. So, now we know he is fine and I can not worry about it until its time to check his weight again!