When your Child is Sick but no one will Listen....

My third child, the baby of the family, was 8 months old when I started to notice something was wrong.  He was showing signs of wanting to walk, not uncommon for my babies.  The other two started walking at the same time.

But then he didn't start walking.  And stopped trying.

He cried, and held his ears, and needed to be held all the time. When he started to pull himself up to standing position he couldn't stand long.  Thus began countless trips to emerg in the middle of the night.  Through snow storms, good weather, and rain.  I started losing count of how many trips we made.

Each time we went they would diagnose him with an ear infection.  Each time we left with a new prescription.

I also started to lose count of how many prescriptions he had been on in a very short time.

They decided he needed tubes in his ears.  They did the surgery.  He didn't get better.  Actually, he got worse.

My little guy right before he had his ear tubes put in.

I started having doctors and nurses tell me that maybe he was crying because he was teething.  I wanted to fire back at them that I had three children and was NOT an idiot. The doctors kept telling me that some babies didn't walk till as old as 18 months.  At 15 months I tried to explain to them that he was ready to walk months ago - but something had stopped him from being able to.  No one listened to me.

Finally, I asked for blood tests to be done.  Something was wrong, but I didn't know what.  I just knew it was more than ears and teeth and normal baby stuff.  They didn't want to do the tests on such a small child.  I pushed anyways.

It took three people to hold my precious baby down to draw blood.  I had to leave my husband in charge of it as I left the room and went down the hall and prayed and cried while I heard him scream.  It took them about 20 minutes to get it done.  

That same night the doctor called me at home.  His B12 levels were dangerously low.  B12 deficiencies can cause permanent damage. Many vegetarians are b12 deficient because plants do not contain B12 but we ate meat so that wasn't the problem.  For some reason his little body wasn't absorbing it.

We put him on a supplement.  One week later he started walking. He never went on a prescription for an ear infection again since then.  

Why am I telling you this story?  Because, moms (and Dads), you know your child.  Doctors and nurses and experts are wise, but sometimes they miss things.  Sometimes they brush you off.  Sometimes they think you are overreacting.  But as parents we have to push for our children.  Trust your gut.  And if in the end you were wrong? well, so what.  Better to be wrong about a situation than to be right and not push for the help you and your child needed.

My little boy? He is now an active, healthy almost 4 year old.  He takes a supplement every day to help maintain his B12 levels.  I hate to think of what would have happened if I listened when they told me that doing blood work on a 1 year old was a bad idea.  

What about you? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to really advocate for your child to get the help they needed?

Peace & Love. ;)