Who Would Have Thought? (And A Prayer Request In A Way)

This is actually a little bit of a follow-up of something that I had posted last week on FB about Big Mac and his crib.  He had been a busy little beaver in many regards, and had completely gnawed the daylights out of his crib rails.  I mean bad.  He has chewed into the furniture polish and into the wood all down the side of one of his rails.

I have since remedied the problem, and made my own version of crib rail guards, which have appeared to have worked!  However, I had grown worried about Big Mac being exposed to chemicals and particles such as led.  I had plans to talk about my concerns with our pediatrician when I brought Big Mac in for his second round of hemoglobin blood work to check his level of iron in his blood.

Last month, I brought him in after giving him additional iron after the previous appointment indicated that his levels were too low.  Well, partly due to a mistake that Scot and I made, Big Mac did not get the amount of iron supplement that he was supposed to have had; therefore, his blood work hadn't changed at all.  In fact, it may have dropped lower, which was slightly disconcerting, because regardless of our mistake, he had been given additional iron.  Anyways, we were told to give it another month with the correct dosage and such in mind.

Yesterday morning, as Scot stayed home with our sick Princess Paiz (stomach bug), I took Big Mac in for another hemoglobin count.  While his levels went up, they barely went up, and were still below where they need to be.  So the doctor instructed us to give it another 4 to 5 weeks.  She said that she is pretty confident that it will go up; but if it doesn't, more extensive blood work will be ordered.  I inquired a little bit more information, but decided to leave the subject a lone primarily because of what I have learned with Little Man's kidney issues as well as GI issues, and what I had learned during Sky Baby's hospitalization--sometimes it is better not to ask too many questions, or know too much, and only worry about it when and IF we have to cross that bridge!

Simply, Big Mac is anemic right now and has been for two months going on three.  Please pray for his levels of iron in his blood to increase, and that he will desire to eat the food rich with iron or are good for iron absorption.  All this is happening as he is also weaning some too.  A lot of it is even on his own accord!  (A mother's breast milk has a higher amount of iron in it than let's say whole cow's milk.)

Anyways, as I was talking to the pediatrician about possible blood work up in the future, we discussed the crib rails that he had been gnawing too.  She is not concerned too much.  She said if he needs blood work for hemoglobin next month, she will order additional blood work for our concerns with the furniture polish.  However, as I told her how he has gnawed the daylights out of the crib, she informed me of something that I did not think of or know.  His gnawing on the crib is a sign that confirms that he his suffering some iron deficiency.  Who would have thought?!  I knew that rocks and dirt were a sign, for which Big Mac was all about doing on Monday when we were out and about at some local plantations as a family, but I didn't know that chewing such things as a crib was a sign too.  He has even been trying to chew part of the stairs and various other pieces of furniture too!  It is a condition known as perka (I totally believe that I missed spelt that).

So now things make sense as to why Big Mac is gnawing on the crib way more than our others kids did.  For him, it isn't simply teething.  And FYI as of today my 11-month-old baby boy only has two teeth to have gnawed the crib the way he has!

(Please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes.  I do not have the time to proofread!)