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Your Reply: See Forum Rules (above) for more information about what codes you are allowed to use in your posts.	[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MM in Canada [/i] [B]Hi Samantha: It appears we have some things in common! I have a son named Julian too, we both have babies who weep a lot, we both started our babies on cereal very early AND we both ask lots and lots of questions.!LOL Let's see if I can help out a little.... I think you are VERY right to be concerned about your pediatrician-- especially if s/he hasn't referred your child to any specialists yet. You sound well informed, which is great. There is a series of medical guidelines for children with DS. Please, let me know if you need a copy of these. I would actively look for a ped. that has experience with children who have DS. It makes all the difference. It IS the ped. role to ensure that your child gets the specialist attention he needs. Regarding the tear ducts, I would be a little more concerned since you've described them being "gooy". Jordan had teary eyes, but no goo, and it has largely cleared up on its own without any intervention (she's 5.5 months now). Have you checked with your Ped. to see if she may have an eye infection? This would need to be treated right away with an antibiotic ointment, I would think, but may not require a specialist (I am NOT a doctor). As Solveig mentioned, the cereal may well change Julian's bowel movements, partially because of the iron in most commerically available cereals. This is the case in all babies, not just those with DS. As you seem to already know, Julian is not constipated unless he passes very solid, formed, stools and seems to be in pain or REALLY struggling when passing them. My pediatrician didn't seem to be concerned until this happened. (Jordan only poops once every 7 or 8 days, and we usually need to help with a glycerin suppository, unfortunately. But the constipation has cleared up, now that we are giving her 2 oz of prune juice every day or every other day.) About tougue protrusion, I HAVE to refer you to an absolutely excellent article which was recommended by another of our members, LisaJ. It gives an execellent explanation of how feeding and tongue- protrusion relate. THe site address is : [url]http://www.oromotorsp.com/art-downsmyths.shtml[/url] I noticed with Julian (non-DS) that he would take cereal exactly the same way when he first started, and he was 5 months old, not 2! Jordan also tends to slurp off the spoon. I wonder if this isn't a just the natural way that very young babies first feed? I remember learning in my baby nutrician class (with my first baby) that putting the cereal into the back of any open mouth is actually force-feeding-- it doesn't give the baby any control over what they are taking in. I would give this some time. Hope this helps. [/B][/QUOTE]
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Jennifer Pope	Samantha, I think you are doing a great job!!! I have to agree with MM about the pediatrician. If your pediatrician makes you uncomfortable in the way that he appears to care for your child, then it is time to look elsewhere. I suggest that you call around and find one that has dealt with DS before and preferably has some current DS patients. On the tear duct issue, Kaitlyn was born with cataracts, had eye surgery at 4 1/2 weeks and has been in glasses since she was about 6 weeks old so we have been seeing a pediatric opthamologist for a while now. Kaitlyn also had the teary eyes as well as the "gooey" eyes (at one point, I thought she had pink eye). Her eye doctor did a small test with a Q-tip (which did not hurt her) to check if she had blocked tear ducts (which he says are common in DS children). Luckily, her ducts weren't blocked and seemed to clear up in a couple of months. You may want to have him checked by an eye doctor, just make sure it's a pediatric eye doctor. With regard to the rashes, I can't say that Kaitlyn has had a problem with them, but I have heard that DS babies tend to have dry skin. Kaitlyn's legs used to be real dry and her ped asked what kind of soap I was using. I told her baby soap (whatever brand they were using at the hospital) and she suggested that I use Dove on her. It's even more gentle than baby soap. Hope this helps!?! [Edited by Jennifer Pope on 08-15-2000 at 10:59 PM]
MM in Canada	Hi Samantha: It appears we have some things in common! I have a son named Julian too, we both have babies who weep a lot, we both started our babies on cereal very early AND we both ask lots and lots of questions.!LOL Let's see if I can help out a little.... I think you are VERY right to be concerned about your pediatrician-- especially if s/he hasn't referred your child to any specialists yet. You sound well informed, which is great. There is a series of medical guidelines for children with DS. Please, let me know if you need a copy of these. I would actively look for a ped. that has experience with children who have DS. It makes all the difference. It IS the ped. role to ensure that your child gets the specialist attention he needs. Regarding the tear ducts, I would be a little more concerned since you've described them being "gooy". Jordan had teary eyes, but no goo, and it has largely cleared up on its own without any intervention (she's 5.5 months now). Have you checked with your Ped. to see if she may have an eye infection? This would need to be treated right away with an antibiotic ointment, I would think, but may not require a specialist (I am NOT a doctor). As Solveig mentioned, the cereal may well change Julian's bowel movements, partially because of the iron in most commerically available cereals. This is the case in all babies, not just those with DS. As you seem to already know, Julian is not constipated unless he passes very solid, formed, stools and seems to be in pain or REALLY struggling when passing them. My pediatrician didn't seem to be concerned until this happened. (Jordan only poops once every 7 or 8 days, and we usually need to help with a glycerin suppository, unfortunately. But the constipation has cleared up, now that we are giving her 2 oz of prune juice every day or every other day.) About tougue protrusion, I HAVE to refer you to an absolutely excellent article which was recommended by another of our members, LisaJ. It gives an execellent explanation of how feeding and tongue- protrusion relate. THe site address is : http://www.oromotorsp.com/art-downsmyths.shtml I noticed with Julian (non-DS) that he would take cereal exactly the same way when he first started, and he was 5 months old, not 2! Jordan also tends to slurp off the spoon. I wonder if this isn't a just the natural way that very young babies first feed? I remember learning in my baby nutrician class (with my first baby) that putting the cereal into the back of any open mouth is actually force-feeding-- it doesn't give the baby any control over what they are taking in. I would give this some time. Hope this helps.
Solveig	HI Samantha! When Bene was having problems with her bowl movements, I gave her a couple of teaspoons of prune juice. That worked out really well, and she hasn't had any problems since. As far as the blocked tear ducts; make sure you wash your baby's eyes with cotton every time they get "gooy". Make sure you change the cotton ball after finishing one eye, don't use the same on both eyes, to avoid spreading the bacteria to both eyes. Bene's tearducts opened by themselves when she was about 2 months, but I know that this is a real problem in DS kids, and some need to have them opened. Keep the baby inside on windy days and out of draft. Wind will make the eyes worse. For the rash, I suggest you see a homeopath. I did when my oldest daughter developed rash, and the doctor told me to use steroid creme. I'm not too crazy about kortizone either, so I figured I'd try something else. The homeopathic medicine cleared out all the rash, and it hasn't come back since. Make sure you keep his skin moist, using a few drops of baby oil in the bath water. When Bene was newborn, she was really dry, too, and I put baby oil right on her skin. It helped really well. I hope these suggestions will be helpful. Good luck!! Solveig
Samantha	I have many questions...my son is 2-1/2 months old and I started him on rice cereal at just under 2 months old. He has quite a tongue protrusion problem developing, which I am in the process of getting him into therapies to help with that, and I noticed that just formula wasn't making him happy. I would feed him and an hour later he was hungry again, even though I was increasing the amount of ounces in formula he was taking. He takes the cereal well, although a lot of the time it seems he slurps the cereal off the spoon rather than letting me put it into his open mouth. (Any suggestions on how to change that?). I have noticed that his bowel movements have much more consistency...I call it velcro poop!:P But I'm concerned that he might develop constipation. His bowel movements vary in size, and they don't appear to be getting hard or anything like that. Should I watch out for any physical signs from him? I also would like to know about blocked tear ducts. Julian's eyes are always gooey ad teary. I called a pediatric opthamologist and they said I needed to do tear duct massage first. So far I haven't seen a change, although I'm not really sure I'm doing it right. Has anyone here had any luck with this type of treatment, or is it inevitable that he'll need his eyes probed to correct the problem? Should I bring him to an opthamologist anyway for an eye exam? I have made appointments for him to be seen by a audiologist, otolarynologist, orthopedist (there was concern when he left the hospital of hip displaysia), and have set him up an appointment to be examined for different types of therapy. Am I doing all this right...my reasoning is that if he's not being examined by different types of specialists there could be a problem going on that they might not know about unless they looked for one being there. I'm not really crazy about my pediatrician ( I've set up all these appointments on my own...he's not made a single recommendation to me) and I'm considering switching. Julian also gets little rashes here and there, mostly on his back now and his face. At first his whole body broke out, but I switched his formula to Alimentum and that seems to have licked the problem except the occassional back rash. His face gets very dry too and I put Eucirin on that, which seems to be working well. But when he breaks out in the rashes the pediatrician told me to use cortisone cream, which I'm not crazy about because of the fact that it can thin the skin. Are there any other less dangerous ways of getting rid of these occassional rashes without the use of steroid creams? sorry this was so long...I'm new to this.. Samantha

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