the doctor

At our twelve month check-up, Dr. Willmore checked Ruby's weight, height, developmental skills, and anything else doctors check.

"She's only in the 5th percentile for weight," he told us, "that could be dangerous." And he prescribed a high in fat and protein diet.

"What words is she saying?" he asked.

"Well, she says 'mama' and 'daddy' but but not much else," I said sheepishly.

"Work with her. If by 15 months she's not talking more, we'll need to get her in for speech therapy," he told me.

As any new mom would, I left the doctor's office worried about my beautiful baby girl.

Then we moved to Oregon and got a new doctor - Dr. Lang. Two days ago we went to Ruby's 18 month check-up. When we walked into the office, she seemed like a stern woman. Her long gray hair was pulled up in a bun and she wore no make up. I almost wondered if she would be too stern for my baby (after all, Dr. Willmore always seemed like a jolly man - yet even he could scare me).

She asked about Ruby's speech.
"Well, she really still doesn't say much. She says a few words, babbles constantly, and has said a lot of words once that she hasn't repeated again," as I said it, I was afraid we'd have to start speech therapy.

"Great," was the doctor's only response. I began to relax.

She looked at the charts for weight and height and marked Ruby in the 75th percentile for height and the 8th percentile for weight. I worried she'd make us do even more crazy fattening diets. Yet she said nothing about it. Instead she asked us if we had any concerns.

"Well, our last doctor was really concerned about Ruby being so little weight-wise," Camm explained.

"Listen, there are ENOUGH fat kids in this world. Ruby is nothing to worry about."

I think I'm going to like this doctor.

VOTE HERE PLEASE! I dropped down to being ranked in the fifties now, my goal is the top 25!!