Claire's 18-Month Stats

Claire had her 18-month check-up on Thursday. She weighed 28 pounds, 6 ounces, which means she gained only 1 pound, 11 ounces, in the past SIX MONTHS! This puts her ON the weight charts at the 91st percentile. What's more, Claire weighs almost two and a half pounds less than Elsa did at 18 months! If Claire goes below the 90s by age 2, that will be the lowest we've ever been on the weight charts with either kid. With the way Claire eats, I think that's very possible.

Claire was 32 inches tall, which puts her at just above the 50th percentile for height. Which means she continues to be substantially shorter than Elsa. Elsa was a whopping 33.5 inches at 18 months.

The doctor's assessment was that Claire is indeed catching up on her motor skills (what a relief that she decided to walk just a few days before this appointment). As far as verbal skills, I explained that while Claire tries to say a lot of words, she doesn't pronounce any of them very clearly. But the doctor asked how many of Claire's words I recognize, and I said I stopped counting at about 30 words when she was 17 months old. (And she adds new words practically every day—it's just that, again, they're not at all clear and may not be recognizable to anyone besides me.) Elsa talked so much and so clearly when she was 18 months old, so it's difficult for me to know what's normal and what's not with Claire. But the doctor said she sounded like she's doing perfectly fine and she isn't worried whatsoever, so that was good to hear.

The doctor's only health concern for Claire was our continuing battle with eczema on her legs and upper arms. I've cut out all products with fragrance (including fabric softener), and I slather her up with Aquaphor every night before bed until she's like a little greased pig in a sleepsack. But nothing seems to be working. Every time I get it under control in one spot, it just seems to move to a new location. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be bothering her much—she never tries to scratch at it or anything like that. The doctor gave me a prescription for hydrocortisone cream, and other than that we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

So all in all, it was an excellent 18-month check-up and a very good week overall for us. Yay Claire!