feeding claire

Apparently, I’m not alone in Claire’s troubles with being big. Her whole life she has been a big baby. She currently weighs in at 22 lbs 6 oz, is 2′5″ tall, and her head is just over 18″ (almost as big as mine). At her 6 month visit, the pediatrician recommended that we come back in 3 weeks to ‘monitor’ the growth of her head. So we did. But before I took her, I measured my husband’s current (and quite large – sorry, Aaron) head to somehow prove that her big head is familial rather than abnormal – but at this rate, they’re both abnormal. Needless to say, when Claire’s head was measured it had grown, as babies’ heads tend to do. When I told the dr the measurements of Aaron’s head, she went to go look them up. She was gone for quite some time and came back and (sorry again, Aaron) but she laughed and said his head was still off the charts. Boy, did I feel better! His head may be large but it’s proportionate to his body. That is exactly how I feel about Claire: she may have a big head, but she’s got a big everything else too. She’s developmentally fine. No delays: she says “mama” when I ask ‘Who am I?’; waves hello and goodbye and goodnight; the picture above was taken when Aaron said ‘Smile’; she’s been crawling for over a month; she is almost standing on her own; walks while holding on to things. I wasn’t worried anymore.

But I guess I’m supposed to be. She went to her 9 month check up a little late (at exactly 10 months). They check her stats (see above) and the first thing the dr says to me when I first see her – to be fair, this was a different dr; my usual dr is on maternity leave so this would be Claire’s third dr – is about getting an MRI for my big-headed baby. WHOA! I say. Slow down. Fortunately, I brought Aaron along to prove his big-headedness. Take a look at her father, I said. She didn’t care about his head and proceeded to discuss the MRI just to ‘dot the i’s and cross the t’s’. But who’s i’s and t’s is she talking about. If there were delays, developmental short-comings, or if she looked like an orange on a toothpick, then I would be open. But an MRI?!? She would have to be sedated – a 10 month old baby sedated to dot i’s and cross t’s. I’m just not so sure. She proceeded further to tell me that CHOP is one of the best hospitals in the country, that she would be in good hands, etc., etc….I’m aware of how great CHOP is but it’s my daughter that you’d be drugging. I was told I could wait to have her checked again at 12 months but if it still was growing at the same rate they would ‘make’ me get the MRI. ‘Make’ is a strong word and I wasn’t pleased with her forcefulness without any cause for concern other than the measurements.

So I’ve decided to wait. I don’t think the stress is necessary. I’m working on getting a second opinion and – to my great fortune – my MIL has Aaron’s medical records from when he was a baby: the head circumferences are just about equal at each stage – like father like daughter; Claire really is a mini-Aaron in so many respects. I’m taking the wait and see approach. I can’t help but trust my instincts on this.