Chasing Butterflies Daily

Ever since becoming a mum I've become introduced to so many different childhood ailments I feel like no one had ever told me about any of them! To be fair I probably wouldn't have listened because prior to having kids I didn't really want to hear about it. And those that were parents before me probably didn't want to tell me about them because most of them are or at least look insanely minging. I mean, why to they all have to come with horrible looking rashes? We all know about chicken pox, but I feel like that's all I knew before my kids turned up despite presumably having had most of these at some point. Three kids down the line I've seen most of the common illnesses by now; basically if you can't vaccinate against it one of my kids probably had it at some point. The toddler years are the worst offenders; admittedly they can catch these bugs at any age but that's the age when they have no understanding of personal hygiene and the con...

Yesterday our youngest, who has the dwarfism condition achondroplasia, had his 6th hearing test since birth. His first two was the standard newborn hearing screening that is done soon after birth. He had failed his first one the day after his birth so we had to come back to the hospital a week later to do the test again. It's not uncommon for newborns to fail the first time as often there's just liquid that needs to clear from after the actual birth. Because of his achondroplasia he is more prone to ear infections and hearing loss as their condition leaves them with smaller ear canals and they often suffer from a build up of fluid in the middle ear canals. Due to this we always knew his hearing would be monitored regardless of how he did at the newborn screening. If he were average height he'd not be offered a hearing test before the age of 4 or 5 unless we had concerns about his ability hear prior to that. If you have any concerns remember to reach out ...

This wee video compilation popped up in my fac ebook memories along with this text:  " Elis had one of his regular check ups with paediatrics today, we met with a doctor we haven't worked with before. DR: "Wow well he shouldn't be able to do that!" Welcome to the household catch phrase, doc! This kid won't be told he "can't" do anything  🙈  - can't believe he'll be turning 1 in 2 months  😭  (still can't sit though bless him, much to his frustration)."   And a year later we have been told that we are being discharged from the paediatric team at the children's hospital and getting transferred over to our local community paediatric team as Elis is doing so well and has no serious health concerns. The community paediatricians are the ones we need to communicate with when it comes to getting occupational therapists to adapt nursery and school environments to suit his needs so we'd need to be in ...