I Love My Sarah

Sarah is my little midget kid. She was my second smallest at birth, weighing in at 6 lb. 1 oz. full term. (Emily was actually my smallest at 5 lb. 8 oz., but she was nearly 3 weeks early.) Sarah has always been at the bottom or below on the growth charts for height and weight. It's never been much of a concern for the doctors because both my husband and I are not the largest people. My husband was a pip squeak in his youth and didn't hit his major growth spurt until college when he grew to be a whoppin 5 ft. 7.5 in. I am about 5 ft. 3.5 in. We both round up when we state our height.

Sarah is also our kid with eczema. I'm not talking about a few dry patches of skin, but the backs of her upper legs have red inflamed skin that itches and bleeds. I've always wondered why she is my only tiny kid with eczema. I have some theories:

Theory #1: When I was 11 weeks pregnant with Sarah, I got this funky virus. One day, my palms started itching. There was nothing to see. They just itched. I remember driving in the car and trying to itch them while holding onto the steering wheel. It was one of those itches that wasn't able to be satisfied. Later in the day, my legs started to itch and my joints began to hurt. The really weird thing was that the bottoms of my feet were extremely painful. It hurt to walk on them. They felt lumpy on the bottom. I don't recall if I had a fever. I don't believe that I did. Since I was pregnant, I went to the doctor. He's a man that has been practicing obstetrics for probably over 30 years and I think I even had him baffled. I remember I explained my symptoms, he examined my skin, and then he left the room. I'm sure he was looking up in his medical books, what it could possibly be. He ended up sending me to the lab to test me for Parvo Virus (Fifth Disease). It was negative. Since my symptoms cleared up in a couple days, we did no further testing and it probably says in my chart, "funky weird virus." So I think that could possibly have something to do with Sarah's funky weird skin.

Theory #2: Her red inflamed skin causes metabolic stress because such a large area of her skin is trying to constantly heal. The hypermetabolic response increases her caloric needs. Since she is young and still growing, her body is constantly competing with itself for the average amount of calories that she does consume. Therefore, her body can never fully heal or grow properly, thus creating an eczematic midget.

Theory #3: The Pull Ups that she wears irritate the skin on the backs of her legs. However, this doesn't quite explain why she has some itchy red patches on her arms too.

Theory #2 feels like a motherly revelation. I am going to monitor her caloric intake this week and subsequent weeks and make sure she gets about 1.3 times the calories that she is supposed to consume and see if this helps her to heal and grow. I'm also going to make sure that she is getting adequate protein. I love using my college nutrition degree! It makes me feel like the $100 I pay toward my school loan each month, 11 years after I graduated, is still worth it.

Sarah is also very random sometimes. Perhaps her caloric intake is also affecting her brain synapses. Tonight I went in the bathroom to get her out of the tub and rub some shea butter on her legs within 2 minutes. I noticed that her hair was wet. She doesn't normally get her hair wet every time she soaks. I commented, "Your hair is wet."

She responded, "Yes, and I washed my crotch and my butt because it's going to be Valentine's day."

Although I was glad that she washed those parts of her body, I must have given a confused look to her. She sensed my confusion and further emphasized with wide eyes, "It is almost Valentine's Day!"

I couldn't dispute it because Valentine's Day is only 33 days away. I'm glad she is learning at an early age that it's especially important to wash crotches and butts on all holidays, especially Valentine's Day. I love my Sarah.