My big boy

You may remember that last fall (you can read here if you don't), we had Caleb evaluated by a neuropsychologist who diagnosed him with ADHD (no surprise), and generalized anxiety disorder with possible OCD (quite surprising, actually). He is now doing well on two medications and has had a really good year, except for one issue: his weight. The medication for ADHD is a stimulant, which commonly suppresses appetite. We worked diligently from the beginning to keep his calorie intake up so that he would not lose weight (at 6 years, 49 pounds and 48 inches is pretty skinny) that he did not have to lose. He has held steady over the past year until a month ago. He had 2 doctor appointments 3 weeks apart and in that time he dropped to just above 44 pounds (now 7 years old and still 48 inches tall). Needless to say, we were all very alarmed. We have just recently switched pediatricians (a story for another day), so she was really concerned as these were the first two times we had ever seen her. We immediately went to work on a very structured daily meal plan packing in as many nutrient rich calories as possible. The pediatrician asked us to go see his neuropsychologist again to see what he thought of the situation because she thought it must be the medication, wanted us to work on increasing calories and to come back in 2-3 weeks.

John and I went and met with the specialist last Friday and he was quite puzzled by the situation, but was rather adamant that the medication could not be the sole cause for the sudden weight loss. If the medication were going to cause that kind of side effects, it would have done so in the first month or two, not a year later.  When looking at the whole picture of all his current symptoms, he raised the question of if he might have a thyroid or adrenal gland issue. I had honestly never even thought about that nor had our previous pediatrician ever mentioned that. So, back to the pediatrician we went this past Tuesday. Caleb gained back almost 3 pounds which is AMAZING but at the same time, still puzzling as to why he dropped it in the first place and why he has essentially weighed the same and been the same height for 18 months now. I asked her what she thought about testing his thyroid and her response was, "Well, that was ruled out before the ADHD meds, right?". Um, no. Apparently, that is one of the things that could/should be checked before starting meds. This was further confirmation that we had made the right choice in switching pediatricians.

So, for now, we are awaiting the thyroid test results and will see where we go from there.  In the meantime, we are working diligently on Caleb's diet. He has been a trooper and is very proud of himself when he eats all his food for the day and that he has made up his own menu, complete with numbers (which I apparently didn't learn quickly enough!). Needless to say, I was rather surprised to be spending the past month so focused on Caleb's health, when I thought October was going to be all about getting ourselves ready for Noah's surgery. Ah, the roller coaster ride of parenting!