Ped appointment

I think it's only regularly done if you live in an area with a high soil
concentration of lead or you live in an old house which might have lead
paint, or on request. I know that one thing they do when they do the
state-funded health screenings in low income schools is to test for lead
exposure, and almost invariably, there's a child or two who tests very high
who had never been caught, despite having had their physicals and shots on
record before school entry age, and it's unlikely that if the child had been
tested as having insignificant levels at age 5, they'd require chelation at
age 6 or 7.

I'm not sure WHY it's not part of the standard screening. It's not like
they're not drawing blood for other purposes pretty regularly.

I'm not sure WHY it's not part of the standard screening. It's not like
they're not drawing blood for other purposes pretty regularly.

Really? Our youngest has never had blood drawn, other than the heel
prick as a newborn, she's 3.5 now and has lived in the US for over 2
years. DS has had blood drawn but both (or maybe it was 3 times) have
been due to illness, he's 5.5 now, so I'd hardly call that regularly.

Cheers
Anne

Lead testing requirements vary by state. Where our kids go to school,
lead testing is required on the school health form at age 4, I think.

I wish all states had required lead testing of young children. It's
such a simple test, and lead poisoning can be treated, but lead
poisoning can have such profound consequences if it goes undetected.

--Beth Kevles
-THE-COM-HERE
http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic
Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.

NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the GMAIL one if you would
like me to reply.

Anne Rogers wrote:

I'm not sure WHY it's not part of the standard screening. It's not
like they're not drawing blood for other purposes pretty regularly.

Really? Our youngest has never had blood drawn, other than the heel
prick as a newborn, she's 3.5 now and has lived in the US for over 2
years. DS has had blood drawn but both (or maybe it was 3 times) have
been due to illness, he's 5.5 now, so I'd hardly call that regularly.

Cheers
Anne

My two (aged 6 and 12) have never had blood drawn, either - except for
the newbork heel prick and hemoglobin checks (the 12-year-old has had 2
and the 6-year-old one.) I don't know why doctors would regularly be
drawing blood from kids.

Clisby

"Clisby" wrote in message
...
Anne Rogers wrote:

I'm not sure WHY it's not part of the standard screening. It's not like
they're not drawing blood for other purposes pretty regularly.

Really? Our youngest has never had blood drawn, other than the heel prick
as a newborn, she's 3.5 now and has lived in the US for over 2 years. DS
has had blood drawn but both (or maybe it was 3 times) have been due to
illness, he's 5.5 now, so I'd hardly call that regularly.

Cheers
Anne

My two (aged 6 and 12) have never had blood drawn, either - except for the
newbork heel prick and hemoglobin checks (the 12-year-old has had 2 and
the 6-year-old one.) I don't know why doctors would regularly be drawing
blood from kids.

Clisby

I've never had any of the kids have blood either, other than DS when he had
an infection maybe a year and a half ago and I believe they did take blood
from him before his emergency surgery after that car accident - which will
be 3 years ago at the beginning of Feb.
Other than that, there's been no blood taken from any of the kids, to my
knowledge or that I can think of. DD1 has the papers for blood test of some
sort, but this is the first time and I think it's special circumstances.
And those heel pricks they do as newborns a few days after birth.
The only time *I* can remember having blood taken was during pregnancies.

"Anne Rogers" wrote:

Really? Our youngest has never had blood drawn, other than the heel prick
as a newborn, she's 3.5 now and has lived in the US for over 2 years. DS
has had blood drawn but both (or maybe it was 3 times) have been due to
illness, he's 5.5 now, so I'd hardly call that regularly.

Alexander has had blood drawn once for allergy testing. Other than that, no
blood draws here either. He is 3.5 years old.

We did a finger prick test for Jack for iron levels at a year. He is 18
months old.

rj

On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 13:50:30 -0700, "Kat" wrote:

To keep to the main point and questions, I did mention her speech which is
still a problem. He asked if we were involved in any early intervention
type program, and that's when I told him we were awaiting funding approval
for an early intervention preschool type program.

You do not need funding for this if you are in the United States.
Your regular school district should be able to handle her preschool if
she is 3 or over. If she is under three, there are free or very low
cost speech therapist that come to your home.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

In article , "Kat" wrote:

He then said he wanted to send her for some blood tests. Something about
chromosomes or something? I didn't really ask him too many questions - he
actually caught me on the way out of the room and asked about the words
thing and it was fairly quick. I thought I could possibly ask the people at
the lab where we'd get the blood work done, but does anyone know about this
at all? Blood tests regarding speech or something? I didn't get a chance
to stop at the lab this morning after her app't.

Speech delays can be related to chromosomal abnormalities, of which Down
Syndrome is the best known. There are many others, and some don't have names.
Of course a diagnosis of one of these conditions won't of itself help your
child's speech; you treat these conditions according to their symptoms, as a
rule.

I don't know the way things are done in other places, but here your doctor
would give you a paper referral, which would list the tests he wanted. They
use abbreviations, but they can be figured out. But frankly, if this is
standard of care from this doctor, you need another one that actually *talks*
to you. He should have told you exactly which tests he was ordering and why.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

"Chookie" wrote in message
news:ehrebeniuk-C6A2B7.09084107012009@news...
In article , "Kat"
wrote:

He then said he wanted to send her for some blood tests. Something about
chromosomes or something? I didn't really ask him too many questions -
he
actually caught me on the way out of the room and asked about the words
thing and it was fairly quick. I thought I could possibly ask the people
at
the lab where we'd get the blood work done, but does anyone know about
this
at all? Blood tests regarding speech or something? I didn't get a
chance
to stop at the lab this morning after her app't.

Speech delays can be related to chromosomal abnormalities, of which Down
Syndrome is the best known. There are many others, and some don't have
names.
Of course a diagnosis of one of these conditions won't of itself help your
child's speech; you treat these conditions according to their symptoms, as
a
rule.

I don't know the way things are done in other places, but here your doctor
would give you a paper referral, which would list the tests he wanted.
They
use abbreviations, but they can be figured out. But frankly, if this is
standard of care from this doctor, you need another one that actually
*talks*
to you. He should have told you exactly which tests he was ordering and
why.

LOL before I actually do a reply, that last part kind of made me laugh a
little... The part about being told exactly which tests were being
ordered... Made me think of my dad... He gets his papers for his blood work,
goes through it and ticks off other things that the doctor didn't order -
things my dad is curious about. His specialist then gets the results back
and asks my dad what the heck is with all these results. My dad just simply
says he was curious. My dad has known his doctor since the dawn of time,
though, and if you knew my dad, this would not be totally off the wall for
strange things he does because *he* wants to.

But... On topic... I'm looking at the papers. I have 2 of them. One says
"Diagnostic Laboratory Services" and I've seen these papers all the time for
my own blood work and all that. It has a full page of various tests. The
one and only one checked of for DD1's testing comes up under "Hematology"
and "CBCD - CBC & Differential" is the one with the check on it.
The other paper is one I haven't seen before - it says "Genetics
Laboratories" on it. It has "chromosones general" written on it (there's no
checking of boxes here, it's written) There is then a row with
"Cytogenetics" and under that, in the "indications" box, there's "speech
delay" written on the lines. Right under that, it says Peripheral Blood
Specimen, B(AP) and "Karyotype, blood. The next column says "Molecular
Genetics" and the only thing in there is where it says, "Pedigree:" there's
a square with a N written in it with a line attaching it to a circle with a
N in it and a bar down the middle of the line between the shapes (kind of
looks like a family tree) that has then O (or a 0) with a + under the O/0
and then beside that is written speech delay.
If that makes ANY sense at all.

I love the kids' ped. I've had him right from the start and I do think he's
absolutely great. I've never had any sort of complaint about him ever
(other than sometimes the office can be a zoo and there was one time we
ended up waiting an hour and a half after closing to see the doctor as it
was that backed up and busy for some reason) He's been great all the way
through. He's awesome with the kids, always has a joke or some sort of
magic trick to get them more comfortable and although he is fast, he has
always taken the time to ask if I have any questions and has always taken
the time to answer any questions or address any concerns. I've never, ever
felt rushed with him. He's a strong supporter of breastfeeding, even
breastfeeding way beyond infancy. With this last appointment, we were
actually squeezed in between appointments because we did not have time to
schedule a regular appointment due to the surgery DD1 was having today. I
also was kind of rushed because my mom was staying with DD2 at home while I
took DD1 and my mom had plans she had made already that she couldn't really
miss or be late for, so I was kind of feeling rushed myself to get home.
Also, he brought up the testing as I was walking out of the room to the main
reception area and caught me as I was walking out, it wasn't really part of
the discussion at the appointment, it was more of a brief thing once it was
over.

What's written on both of these papers might as well be in some foreign
language to me. Maybe once everyone is quiet and sleeping I'll have to do
some googling around or something.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/