Hi, me again. Long time no see, but I am in need of objective/blunt feedback, and my IRL friends/family are all too nice for that. They say everything is fine and I want to believe them, but I'm here for a reality check.
DS will be 7 mo. next week. (Time flies.) He has always had great head/neck control (at a few days old, he was already lifting his head to look around for brief periods), and he loves tummy time. He can sit with support, but will slump and then either wiggle onto his tummy or roll onto his back, depending on which way he slumps. At his 6 mo. checkup, he was 28+" (98th percentile) and 18+ lbs (79th percentile). So he was basically the size of an average 1 y.o. at 6 months. Pedi was happy with his development, no cause for concern.
The lead teacher in his infant room at DC is making an increasingly big deal of his sitting (or lack thereof). First it was just suggestions for exercises to help strengthen his core, which, fine. DD was always in the back half of the curve for gross motor--not formally delayed, just slower than average. Her pedi wasn't worried, we weren't worried, and over time she has caught up to her peers. So with that precedent, Mr. Heff and I weren't concerned about DS, either. Particularly since both kids have always been very tall for their age, and DD inherited my bad sense of balance. So DS already has a high center of gravity, and if it turns out he has my poor balance too, then he'll definitely have to work harder to sit independently. We incorporated the core exercises into his play and went on with our lives.
Lead Teacher pulled me aside at drop-off yesterday and wanted to walk with me--I thought we had accidentally violated one of the rules or something. But she started asking about DS's next checkup (not 'til 9 mo) and suggested we have him evaluated for physical therapy. "Because of the sitting thing?" Yep. "But sitting is usually an 8 or even 9 month milestone, from what I've read. I mean, I know lots of kids do it sooner, but..." She claims that he has poor muscle tone and needs to work on it, maybe with a PT. I started freaking out on the way to work, called DH, got him properly worked up, sat down at my desk with Dr. Google, and DS is way, way far from the clinical definition of poor muscle tone. They describe kids who "feel like a bag of jelly" and that is so far from DS. He rolls both ways, isn't quite scooting but is really close, can turn himself 360 degrees when he's playing on his tummy, picks up toys, shoves everything in his mouth, sits with support (until he eventually slumps), and will even sit alone for very brief periods--several seconds, typically, but nowhere near a minute. DH and I talked each other off the ledge and agreed to just wait and see.
DH did drop off this a.m., and lead teacher did the same thing to him, with the pulling aside and the poor muscle tone, etc. So then DH was second guessing himself, called me, and we basically did a repeat of yesterday's foolishness. I called the pedi and maybe I'm imagining it, but even the receptionist taking the message didn't seem to think it was a big deal. Nurse called back and said he sounds fine to her but she's going to consult with his pedi and call me afterward.
With all that, do you think I'm being denial-y, or does DCP need to back off? On the one hand, she sees tons of kids, so I feel like she does have a broader perspective than we do, and she can be a lot more objective. On the other, I feel like I know both of my kids really well, DS is following DD's pattern, she was fine and he will be too. The only reason I'm even concerned is because DCP seems normal and I can't figure out why she's so concerned. WDWWT?
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