The early months....

The first few months with three kids under 4 was full on. Miss L settled in well with us and seemed not to mind too much being carted back and forth from school and kindy. At a few months old she got a cold which seemed to last a while but did eventually go. She was early to roll both on her back and her front. All of a sudden I had to watch her closely whilenplaying as she was on the move. Around 5 months we decided to try solids. She was fully breastfed and seemed happy to stay that way, surprising considering our start. She was born with tonguetie which was snipped at 3 days old which meant lots of help when we got home to show her how to attach with her "new" tongue. So we tried the custards, puree and rice cereal but she didn't seem too interested in either. By 6 months she had moved up from ooooo clothes to being a 6.4kg baby in ooo clothes. Still small and petite but in keeping with her birth weight. By 8 months we had no luck getting her to take solids and I was starting to worry. She wasn't sitting yet and hadn't yet met any more milestones after rolling. She had a very floppy body and she loved to go straight from being on the floor to standing. She had stiff legs and arms when she was standing in your arms but a floppy head and middle. by this time I had made an appointment to see our Paedeatrician. He has seen all 3 of my kids and this certainly helped with his background knowledge. After being weighed we were told Miss L was slowing losing weight. Developmentally she was around the 6 month mark and she was hypertonic. The Dr suggested a few blood tests to see what would show up. Of course it has never been that easy for us...nothing showed up. When we went back Miss L had lost even more weight and had an ulcer under her tongue where the tongue tie had been snipped. She also has an excema type sore behind both ears. It was red and scabbed over but never healed. Another set of tests were ordered which included testing for vitamin deficiencies including B12 which helps in healing and cells. The tests came back showing the Miss L was low in vitamin B12 which was highly unusual. Most people who have low B12 are vegans or non meat eaters. Miss L was fully breastfed and I eat meat and didn't show any signs of low B12. This meant going off to get some B12 that day and giving her an injection. Our Dr then got in touch with a scientist at Princess Maragret Hospital for Children, to discuss the unusual results. He suggested I go and have my levels tested to see if I was the cause. Again no it couldn't be that easy. My levels were fine. So where did the deficiency come from? I did the silliest thing and Googled Vitamin B12 deficiency.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency It is becoming more and more well known, and not for any good reason. Babies in the US are tested for their B12 levels at birth now as it's importance in every cell of the body becomes clearer. My tip, don't Google you just end up with kore questions. So did the low levels mean it has caused neurological damage or not? A week after the shot was given we had to go have another blood test to see if her levels we back up or if she hasput more weight on. No such luck. So the Dr rang the scientist Dr Barry Lewis again to ask what to do. The news wasn't good. He wanted us admitted to the hospital for a whole range of new tests....our journey was about to begin.