When we went for our flu shots, the pediatrician was very concerned by the fact that MsI at 3 years old looks to be catching up in height to MsE at 6 years old. She was worried that MsE was too short.
I tried to reassure her that a pediatrician in Canada assured us that MsE was just short, the month before we left Canada. The Canadian pediatrician had felt that as MsE's always has been in the 3rd percentile for height and she was, and still is, that she was fine.
But apparently your height is supposed to be:
- the mother's height and the father's height in either inches or centimeters
- Add 5 inches (13 centimeters) for boys or subtract 5 inches (13 centimeters) for girls
- Divide by two
Meaning our girls should be about 5 ft 3 inches tall as adults. MsE is more likely to be 5 foot nothing.
This pediatrician referred us to an Endocrinologist, which felt a tad excessive to me, but they went ahead and booked the appointment for us. So when our pediatrician called later in the week and asked if we'd rather her run some basic tests on MsE first, I agreed.
We spent 3.5 hours at the Medical Clinic / Hospital Labs with MsE. First we had an appointment with our pediatrician where she she looked at MsE's growth chart records from Canada, went through why she wanted to do the tests, and what tests she was calling for. We then checked out of the Medical Centre, and into the Hospital next door (the buildings literally touch), redoing our COVID symptom free declarations again. At the Hospital, MsE had an x-ray of the growth plates in her wrist. We started out by sitting in the wrong waiting room, but someone noticed and sent us farther down the hall to the next waiting room. That probably added some time to our wait. MsE sat so still for the x-ray that they only had to take one picture for her.
We got to keep the x-ray after. MsE liked showing her bones to her sisters at home after.
Next we checked out of the Hospital and back into the Medical Centre (redoing our declarations again) to do the blood tests. We literally waited till the last minute to tell MsE what we were about to do for that test.
In MsE's own words, she had been "totally creeped out," just by having her blood pressure taken in her regular doctor's appointment. The pediatrician even said it was too high to be right and that she'd redo her blood pressure another day.
Anyhow, for the blood tests MsE just sat on my lap with her eyes tightly closed from the moment she understood they were going to take her blood, asking periodically if it was over yet. One nurse held her arm still, and the other took the 3 vials of blood. Then they gave her a fluffy toy as a reward. I was super impressed with their process.
After that we went home to wait for the results, until our doctor's appointment 2 days later.
I counted, and they tested 32 different things in MsE's blood, and all of the results came back normal. Her bone scan also showed that her bone age is younger than her actual age, which is what they were hoping for. It just means she has more time to grow.
So after all that, drum roll please...
Official Diagnosis: Short Statue.
Yep, the pediatrician now agrees with us; MsE just got all the short genes in the family.
She also told us that MsE's blood, says her nutrition is totally fine, which was a little surprising, because she's such a picky eater. The doctor didn't even think vitamins were necessary. She also literally prescribed MsE one to two glasses of chocolate milk every day and said white rice is a great food for her.
We had a good laugh and celebrated at a Paul's Patisserie down the road. We got a table right beside the Christmas tree. We also found a giant Santa without his hat in the outdoor Christmas Decor at Tanglin Mall.
