As most of you long-time readers know, Lillian has a little head. Not just a little bit little. Currently, her head is the size of your average one-year old. A little head, or microcephaly, comes along for one of 3 reasons: 1. Your sutures fused prematurely. Lillian had a CT scan when she was like 9 months old to rule this out. 2. Your brain is not growing. Lillian has hit all of her milestones mostly on time and as anyone who talks to her would testify, her brain is fine. Which means that she falls into category number 3. You just have a little head.
Because the consequences of not finding categories 1 and 2 heads can be so dire, Lillian has been subjected to multiple pediatric neurologists over her short life. She had her final appointment today and again received a clean bill of health.
Mostly.
The doctor commented that she had less-than-average muscle tone, which could be responsible for her overall clumsiness and awkwardness in movement, the fact that she W-sits, her pickiness with food (as some foods are easier to eat with a lazy tongue), and the fact that she pronounces L and R like W.
She is really clumsy. She falls out of her chair almost ever night at dinner.
The funniest part of the visit was when Lillian and the doctor were on the floor doing puzzles and I had to remind Lillian to sit criss-cross, which she did. As she was correcting her position, she looked at the doctor who was wearing a pencil skirt and thus kneeling on the ground and in a stern voice, Lillian said, "Sit criss-cross!" The doctor was a good sport and laughed while doing her best to sit criss-cross while beskirtted.
The second funniest was when Lillian noticed that there were words printed underneath the shapes of one of the puzzles and confidently started "reading them." "This says oval," she would proclaim. She correctly read off most of the names but the jig was up when she announced it said 'diamond' when, in reality, it said, 'rhombus.' Someone once told me I was really good at making other people think I knew what I was talking about. I think Lillian may have inherited this talent.
The cure to low muscle tone and coordination? Some sort of movement class that will challenge her: dance class, tumbling, swim lessons. And, more tricycle riding.
5 comments:
Is that "W-sits" link some sort of crazy joke??
I fixed the W-sit link. I don't know what happened when I wrote it originally.
You know I totally vote for dance class, but I did gymnastics as a kid and really loved it, too.
Wow that's crazy! Is there anything that can be done about it?
I vividly remember my sister's pre-school teacher was a real Nazi about W-sitting. I don't think I ever did it before then but my impressionable 8 year old mind decided that W-sitting was of the devil. She was hard core.
I like the picture. Maybe she doesn't have a little head, maybe she just has a big hat?
Post a Comment