Some Things I'm Worried About!

Sunday, August 23 2009

We are in New York this weekend visiting Papa Jim and Kun Yai. The weather is very nice but it gets too hot sometimes in the afternoon. Lukie spends a lot of time outside playing in his little pool in the backyard with Papa Jim. We went to the beach two days ago and Lukie had so much fun playing in the sand. He gets so tan. Charlie always puts sunscreen on him but Lukie still gets tan so easily. Sometimes he points to his arm and says, "it's black." Well, I myself don't like to be in the sun much at all but because my son loves to be outside I have to do it.

Skin discoloration and a spot on his hand

When Lukie was 22 months old, I notice a brown spot on his left hand. It was small, like a dot from a pen when I first saw it. Charlie asked the doctor about it during Lukie's last checkup. She said it was nothing to worry about. So I'm not too worried, but I noticed that the spot has gotten larger since Lukie turned 24 months. I think I have to call the doctor about this just to be sure.

Stuttering

Lukie is an early talking kid. At just over 2 years, he can communicate with others almost like a 3-year-old. Around the time of his second birthday, Charlie and I noticed Lukie would stutter when he was tired (he always becomes very talkative when he is tired). He would repeat the first word of a sentence over and over again before completing the sentence. We just thought this was probably because he was tired and couldn't figure out what he wanted to say. But this week his stuttering has become noticeably worse. He stutters now even when he is well rested, and sometimes his voice takes on a high pitch when he is struggling to get the words out. So Charlie did some research online. Apparently, about five percent of children will stutter some time during their lives (usually between ages two and four). About 80 percent of these children will gradually stop stuttering, usually within six months. Still, we plan to ask Lukie's pediatrician about this.

Throwing up after meals

This is very upsetting to me. Lukie throws up at least once a week. It's been more than a month now. First I thought it was because he still had food in his mouth when he got down from the high chair to play, and the horsing around made him gag. So now we always try to keep him seated while he eats. Sometimes he would gag on a piece of fruit, or his vitamin that I would give him after dinner, and throw up his entire meal. Once, when he finished his dinner and saw Charlie eating a cookie he asked for a bite. Charlie gave it to him and just a minute after he bit a little piece of cookie, he started coughing (on a crumb?) and threw up all the food he had eaten. So we decided not to give him anything right after his meal. But he still throws up. Sometimes he just keeps the food in his cheeks instead of swallowing it. When I finally tell him to spit out the big ball of food, he gags and makes himself throw up. This is very frustrating because it is a lot of work getting him to eat in the first place. Of course I have to cook his food, then Charlie reads him a story while I feed him. He still won't feed himself more than a few bites. So I'm going to ask the doctor about this, too.