Sick!

Sweet little Patrick has had a rough few weeks health-wise. He has had a really bad cold that just won't go away.  Every other child at Margaret's had a bad cold too, so at first I didn't think much of it. He didn't have a fever, so I didn't think it was his ears that were bothering him since he has always traditionally developed a fever with his ear infections. He had a couple bad days at Margaret's where nothing went right for him. He threw tantrum after tantrum about absolutely nothing. He would be playing with his trains by himself and all of the sudden freak out and drop to the floor. He was also looking really pale and sickly and not eating at all. I took him to the doctor and he had a double ear infection. A double ear infection didn't really satisfy me, since he doesn't normally look and feel this bad with an ear infection. I asked the doctor to do a blood test and the results came back that he is severely anemic. So anemic that on a scale of 1-100 (1 being the sickest anemic child) he was between a 1 and 3. The doctor was really shocked.  They normally test children at 9 months and if the child is anemic, it will almost always show up at 9 months.  However, I breastfed Patrick for so long that he was getting all of his iron from me, so it took a little longer for it to affect him (which is good).  His 9 month levels were normal, but on the low end of normal. The doctor said that if we don't try and correct this now that it will stunt his growth and affect his learning ability. Part of it is genetic, but we can try and get him closer to normal by changing his diet.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that Patrick only eats fruit, yogurt and milk, all of which contain no iron in them. I immediately went home and googled foods that have the most iron in them.  All foods that Patrick hates....red meat, egg yolks, spinach (which he used to really love), liver, kale, etc.  It has been a struggle in our house the past couple weeks to say the least! I think Michael spent 2 hours reading every single box in Kroger trying to pick out foods that Patrick might like that have iron in them.  I think we have 7 different boxes of cereal! I have been crushing up a supplement and putting it in his yogurt, which he doesn't seem to mind too much.  He also likes some cereals that have some iron in them and he likes prune juice. Other than that we are really struggling finding things that have iron in them that Patrick will eat. The doctor plans to test again in 6 months, since he thinks it will take that long to get his levels back up.

I haven't been feeling good in the mornings recently, so Patrick and I have been eating breakfast while I lay on the couch and he sits next to me. I have found that if I put him in front of the T.V. that he eats at least a few bites of something that he normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole!  It's a terrible habit and one that I don't want to continue, but at least it gets him to eat one meal with iron in it! I think it's much better than force feeding him and risking a food complex!  If anyone has suggestions on ways to get a VERY picky child to try new things or good recipes with foods that have iron in them feel free to post them! I am open to suggestions besides eating in front of the T.V!!

He has also really really struggled with his ear infections. We have been to the doctor 3 times in less than week! He has cried non-stop (straight for 4 or 5 hours!), has not been sleeping at all and has been vomiting from the pain of the ear infection. We couldn't get the ear infection to go away!! We are finally halfway through a new medicine and it seems to be working!  Keep your fingers crossed for the poor little guy! He needs a break from sickness! Michael and I need a break too! No sleep and missed work = very stressed out parents that have to take turns being with Patrick and then working every other minute of the day we aren't trying to get a couple hours of sleep!

And just for fun, here are a couple pictures of my sweet little boy painting. Yes, we are using trucks to paint because we can't seem to do anything without his trucks these days!