18 month check up

Height: 34.25 inches 95%ile
Weight: 31.25 pounds 95%ile
Head: 49.5 centimeters, 75%ile

What a big boy!! I can't believe hes still in the 95th for height and weight. The appointment went horribly as I expected. I brought gigi along because I knew Max would be throwing a fit and I wouldn't be able to hear what the doctor was saying. Well even with Gigi there I only caught about half of what the doctor was saying. Max screamed and cried pretty much the whole time the doctor was in the room. I did get that we can try peanut butter now. He said they recommend doing it on a weekday and having benedryl on hand. Scary! I asked him how many words he expects a child Max's age to be saying. He said for a boy, he only expects maybe 5-8 words at this point. Max definitley has more than that so I can check that off of my list of things to worry about. Not that I was worried, but hes not the most verbal kid yet and I hear about kids who have like 100s of words at this point. As an SLP I always tell parents that they should have 50 words by the time they are 2 years old. Its just different when its your kid and you compare them to everyone else you know. Maybe I also have high expectations for him since I feel like he has had 18 months of constant speech therapy from his mother! Everything else looks good. Thank god I have such a healthy boy!

The doctor gave us this checklist that they are giving at every 18 month appointment. It had questions like...does your child point to things, does he play with toys, does he imitate faces you make, etc. Basically its a quick test to see if anything stands out as a red flag for a developmental problem, autism, etc. I filled it out in the office and Max was doing basically everything that it asked. I was really glad to see that they are giving that to parents because I see too many kids who slip through the cracks and don't get the help they need until way too late. You wouldn't believe what some parents just don't know about or aren't tuned into. They figure their kid is just a normal kid and don't look any further into it than that. Then before they know it, they're 10 years old and not speaking in complete sentences or following 1 step directions and reading at a kindergarten level when they are in 4th grade and the parents still don't know that something is wrong. I'm not kidding, it happens. I guarantee alot of those kids could have been identified at as young as 1 year old and been so much better off by the time they are school age. Its sad.