Tuesday, June 27, 2006

"Eight month" check (at nine and a half months)

OK, I'm being a little unfair. Oliver had his "eight month" check today to see whether he is developing as expected, but in fact the health visitor assess his development for his current age, not just against an arbitrary 8 month benchmark.

It was nice to see that he is at least on track in all areas and in some areas he is rated at the level expected of a 12 month old ("Manipulative", "Hearing and Language", "Interactive Social") and even a 15 month old ("Self-care Social").

On the other hand I can't help feeling a little sad that he is already being "scored", useful though it may be in conveying to us how he's doing.

The health visitor was very slightly concerned about one of his eyes. We have long since noticed that one of his eyelids opens very slightly less than the other and occasionally in photos he looks like he has a slightly lazy eye. She suggested we make an appointment to check that this is not impairing his vision in any way. I had a lazy eye when I was small so I'm not too worried about that.

Tonight he had rosy cheeks before he went to bed and he has woken crying a couple of times. Looks like more teeth are trying to break through. Hayley assures me two are already through (having come through in the last week or so), though I can't say I've managed to catch site of them yet!