laryngomalacia, or why G squeaks

I have suspected for some time that the cause of G's squeak is a condition called laryngomalacia. All of the symptoms just made sense. I first read about it in my Baby 411 book (which is probably the best book we have about parenting. It has calmed us many times and answered pretty much every question I've had.) the Pediatrician who co-wrote the book is married to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor, so I am just guessing that she knows a lot about the condition. Anyway, in the book it says that if your baby makes noise when breathing that sounds like G's, then it is something called "floppy larynx" and that kids usually grow out of it. So, given my interest in research, I decided to wade into some of the literature and see what I could find out. It said pretty much the same thing that the book said, but added a few details, like sometimes kids need to have surgery to correct the problem (this is generally done when it is keeping a kid from "thriving"). So that was reassuring, still, I wanted my diagnosis confirmed, and wanted to make sure that G was being watched for this (in case it was or became a problem).

Well, we got a referral from our primary care giver's partner (it was a big PITA trying to get the right kind of referral) to go to Children's Hospital in Seattle. I was excited about going to Children's because one of the studies I read about laryngomalasia was actually written by the team at Children's, so I felt like G would be seeing great people. It was a long wait, because our referral started out getting sent to the wrong speciality clinic. There were many phone calls made to straighten it all out, and everyone was confused because G is not called Myles. (Why is that so hard?) Finally we got the call on Friday to make an appointment, and we got in today at 3. (very quick turn-around really once they got the right referral).

First of all, Children's is an amazing facility. If G needs emergency care, we're going there. The Gates have been generous donors, and it shows. We had a long wait, but they give you a beeper (like when you go to a busy restaurant) that buzzes you, so you can walk around the facility more. G was weighed and measured (we weren't sure if he was 6.1 kg or 6.5 kg) and we were taken to an exam room. The room was nice, and there was obviously a lot of attention paid to the details. For example, instead of chairs they had a couch thing kind of build into the room. It was designed for families. We had to wait again for the doctor to come in.

First we saw the resident. He asked us a lot of questions, and we told him what we'd observed. He confirmed my suspicion. He took a look at G and G smiled at him and kicked his feet. Then the doctor came in and said we were going to take a look in his throat. They put a scope in his nose and down his throat, so we could see what was going on. Of course, G was crying, which makes the throat open wide, so you couldn't really see it (G does not make his noise when crying, which is pretty typical for kids who have this.) Anyway, the doctor said that sometimes surgery is necessary, but that they did not think that G would need it, because he's gaining weight well. She suggested that we go in to our doc every week or two to check his weight to make sure that he stays on track weight-wise. But, we don't have to go back to Children's unless he stops gaining. They said that he'd likely stop doing it by the time he's 9-12 months, so we'll have a squeaky baby for the foreseeable future. The resident gave us a copy of the movie they made when they put the scope down his throat too. I think I'll put it in his baby book.

And as a reward for reading the whole post, here's some eye candy.