Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Need to let the Sun Shine upon you

Dear Gabdu,

I am rather ashamed to tell you that this week when we visited the doc for your MMR vaccine, he did a complete checkup and asked me in a rather strict and unapproving tone whether or not I had given you the calcium dose and vit D he had prescribed in Sept. I had not :( because you kept falling sick of and on and everytime I wud ask the doc, he wud say start it after the child gets ok. Bad excuse I know :( and so I am unable to come to terms with the fact that I did not pay enuff attention to it . Imagine my horror when he said your fontanelle had not closed and you had open wrists .. not that I knew exactly what that meant but I knew that I had screwed up :(. I asked him what it meant and he said .."Calcium deficiency - can cause Rickets "actually he did not even say a full sentence - he looked disapprovingly and said "Rickets" like I mean how could you educated folks not know abt it :(( . Frankly speaking it never crossed my mind that I need to take care of your mineral/vitamin requirements and that deficiency cud happen at any strata of the society. I associated the deficiencies with malnourished kids and I know I am wrong abt it :(. Anyways thankfully the doc told us abt the fact that there is a calcium deficiency and so I have started on regular doses of Calcium and every morning Nanu takes you downstairs for playing for abt an hr. I overlooked the important factor of sunlight and though all ur grandparents stressed on it, we kinda did not pay much attention to it. Anyways I am praying and hoping that with this, the deficiency goes away and everything is fine . Also read abt the fact that when child breastfed and mother does not get enuff sunlight( Vit D) that could also cause a deficiency .. so need to make it a pt for us elders also to spend some good time in sunlight. I mean come to think of it even mama papa hardly get any sunlight :(
I hope everything turns out fine and I am really sorry I omitted taking care of these things and i hope anyone reading this will also ensure they and their children get enuff sunlight

luv
Mamma

2 comments:

Crumbling Cookie said...

Hey don;t beat u'rslef up too much over this..Gabdu will be fine.
A bit of unsolicited advic eif I may-don't be so willing in accepting the doc's words..if Gabdu is getting at least 2 glasses of milk per day(minimum), there's very little chance that she'll develop calcium deficiecy.
Cheer up and bring on the supplements.

the mad momma said...

aww...dont let thet guilt trip get to you. i havent been asked to give the brat anything in the last 2 years or so of his life. and he is fine. different doctors prescribe different things and so there is no one absolute way to do it. mine believes in not giving supplements.. so what?

i am sure she will be fine. our parents and theirs did fine without calcium supplemnts, didnt they? cheer up.