Neonatal Clinic

Today was our visit to the Neonatal Clinic. It is a clinic that all babies in the NICU go to in order to be evaluated on their condition. Greg went with me today and it was so nice to have him there, he may now be required to attend all appointments, he really made me feel a lot better about going. During the appointment we saw a Nutritionist, Neonatologist, Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist. I have made a brief summary of each below.

Nutritionist
Truitt has no problem in this department. He is gaining weight well and loves to eat! She did speak with us about starting him on solid foods so we may give him some rice cereal tonight.

Neonatologist
The Neonatologist we saw was wonderful. She quickly looked over Truitt and thought he looked great. Her only concerns were his head size being small and he dropped a little lower on the chart for height. She did not seem the least bit worried about his head and says it is probably a side affect of the HIE (oxygen loss). Again, they will just continue to monitor these things and hope they correct themselves with time.

Physical Therapist
Although he appears to be doing very well the physical therapist did notice a few delays in his development. He is great at holding his head up, but has a hard time holding it up for long periods of time without getting weak. She told us to be sure he gets plenty of tummy time and he should be able to strengthen those muscles with ease. He also is showing some high muscle tone in his right arm and still likes to keep that hand fisted. They did recommend getting him into some physical and occupational therapy to make sure he gets the help that he needs to overcome any delays.

Overall the physical therapist did say he fell within the average range but was maybe just a little on the lower end of average. I will take that! He is able to do many things that healthy 4 month olds do but just has some small delays. We will be sure to work with him and stay on top of it to keep him moving in the right direction.

Occupational Therapist
The occupational therapist checked him a little closer with his arm movements. She showed us some things to do to help him improve his arm and hand motions. They are going to fit him for a bigger "Joe Cool" to see if pulling that thumb out will help him to relax his right hand and arm. He will begin to see the occupational and physical therapists every other week.

Overall the visit went well and Truitt is continuing to do well also. Even though today is another hard day for me, I continue to count my blessing and look at all of the good things he is doing. I will be the first to admit it is hard to hear he has any delays, but I'm so thankful that so far they are small delays and easy to work with.