Well, we had bad news and good news at the doctor today.
Alex had a fever this weekend, so I called his doctor and took him in this morning. He has another ear infection. I’m not even counting anymore, but this must be his seventh or eighth since last October. He’s on antibiotics now, so I hope he’ll feel better soon.
The primary cause of all these ear infections, of course, are the colds he picks up at daycare and other places we go. The underlying cause is most likely a narrow ear canal he inherited from Marty. Little children do, in general, have narrow ear canals that are not built for drainage, but some clearly have more problems with ear infections than others. Marty was one of these kids, and Alex is, too.
Then, this afternoon, we had our long-awaited appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist. That is, a kids’ eye doctor. We haven’t noticed any problems with Alex’s vision, but considering his genes, we thought it would be a good idea to get a baseline of his vision as soon as we could. Apparently, even though vision problems like myopia generally develop later on in childhood, doctors are able to look at a one-year-old’s eyes and tell whether or not they are likely to have problems later. Imagine my relief when the doctor declared Alex’s eyes “perfect.”
Marty had Lasik (laser eye surgery) in 2002 to correct his severe myopia. (If diopter -11 means anything to you, you’ll understand what I mean by “severe.”) We are both very happy that Alex has apparently inherited my better-than-20/20 vision!
Now we’re just hoping he gets Marty’s left-handedness and ability to drive a stick shift!
Tell us more about how a one year old has an eye exam. I’m glad you had a good report on the eyes.
Our son had 5 ear infections in 5 months and right after he turnded one had tubes put in his ears. It was so fast and easy, he hasn’t had any ear infections and he has had 2 colds….so I guess they work.