Ben Age Two: Part One

When Ben turned two he started Preschool. We hoped that a school setting with peers his age would offer him the environment for his vocabulary to just "explode." Although I think he was happier to have the routine and structure that was lacking at home with a sleep deprived mother and 2 month old baby brother, his speech wasn't blooming the way we had hoped it would. In fact, it was declining. He no longer would say what sound this or that animal made. His comprehension also seemed to be getting worse. We scheduled to have an evaluation at Florida's Early Steps to see just how far behind or delayed Ben was and if he qualified for any services.

Meanwhile, the germs and colds continued to blossom and took over the entire family. Ben was constantly sick and went back and forth between double ear infections that took 3 rounds of antibiotics to clear, to stomach viruses (possibly Rota) that caused him to loose his appetite and vomit non stop for days at a time. Ben got REALLY skinny and we were very concerned. Unfortunately with clothes on he looked normal, but if you saw him running around with a diaper on, you'd know he was sick. His pediatrician never took all his clothes off so he didn't think he was "that skinny."

I could count his ribs on his back and his chest and even see the skin pulsing where his heart was. His knees and shoulders were very boney. He was over 2 years old and was still wearing size 9 month or 12 month shorts and t-shirts. I was able to use his 4 month old brother's size 2-3 Newborn Diapers on him.

 

 I started buying these really fattening health drinks like Pediasure or Ensure and adding whole milk, ice cream and even olive oil straight into the shakes. At Ben's lowest point he weighed 20.5 lbs and if he lost any more weight we'd have to take drastic measures, something like feeding him nasty formulas through tubes, I think. I added globs and globs of butter to his mac and cheese and when he threw it up we'd make another bowl and force it down. I bought the fattest, highest concentrations of ice cream and any cookie, crackers or dairy products that were made from whole milk with high fat contents. I remember scolding my brilliant hubby for feeding Ben broccoli. Why fill him up on something with no calories or fat!? At least pour butter and oil and cheese all over that broccoli!

After Ben's 3rd ear infection that took 3 rounds of antibiotics to clear, (so he'd been on 9 rounds in less than a year) and the last round was always a three day series of shots in the butt, we had a scary poopy diaper. His school teacher showed me how pigeon blood red it looked, and it was extremely mushy. I took the diaper to his pediatrician's office where they immediately tested it for blood. It came back negative, thank God. They sent the stool to a lab and confirmed that it wasn't blood, and the only unusual marker from the lab report was a high level of yeast. We were told to put Ben on the probiotic Florastor.

Because of these chronic, persistent ear infections, we went back to the ENT. She said he had fluid in his ear and didn't want to perform a hearing test because she knew he'd fail it. Looking back, I don't know if I believe this, but we were desperate for help, so we scheduled to have tubes put in his ears the following Monday. Just before the ear surgery, we finally were able to make it to the Early Steps Evaluation. We had to keep canceling because Ben was always sick on our appointments. The evaluation was extremely thorough. They had a team of four different specialist working with and evaluating him. Speech, Occupational, Behavioral and an Autism specialist. He played with toys appropriately, but had poor sustained eye contact, couldn't follow simple instructions, had little vocabulary and his comprehension was even more delayed than his speech. Ben showed a few "red flags" for Autism, like his regression in speech (which we contributed toward his chronic ear infections and believing he just couldn't hear) and he didn't respond to me after I called his name 8 times in a row. He qualified for free speech therapy through the state.