Infant Ibuprofen Dosages

We get our infant ibuprofen at Safeway.  Their generic brand recently changed in three ways.

First, the medicine is now twice as diluted.  (The pharmacist had heard that too many parents were giving their babies too high a dose.  Apparently the manufacturer hoped watering it down would prevent this.)

Second, the bottle no longer provides dosage information for children under two years of age.  It just says "ask a doctor", which is of course the best advice.

Third, it now contains a small cup instead of those nice syringes that made it so much easier to give the medicine to an infant.  (They were Smiley's favorite teething items, too.)

Our family physician recommends for Gallant the dosages that matched what the old bottle said.  And we still have a few of those nice syringes.  So here, for our own record keeping, are the two now-missing infant dosage amounts adjusted for the half-strength new medicine.

• 12 to 17 pounds - 2.5 mL (one-half teaspoon)
• 18 to 23 pounds - 3.75 mL (three-quarters teaspoon)

Check with your doctor before following these old guidelines!

Gallat Approaching Nine Months

I've mentioned that Gallant now has two teeth.  What else is happening with him?

Teething makes his gums sore.  Some days he eats well, but usually only one or two meals.  Other days he only wants to drink.  My wife and I are tired because Gallant is waking up every two or three hours during the night, hungry again.

He weighs 19.2 pounds, which is about what Smiley weighed at one year.  He is a much bigger baby.  This sometimes confuses my intuition or my wife's.  Shouldn't he be doing this-or-that by now?  Smiley did so, when he was that big.  Then we remember there is a three or four month "gap" between the two boys for developmental age and physical size.

Gallant is balancing better when standing.  He still needs to hold on to something, but only barely.

He likes banging things against the walls or his high chair tray.  Bang, bang, bang!

He has developed that cute but annoying baby game of Not Quite Sharing:

1. He holds up a toy or food item with an outstretched arm.
2. Sometimes, but not always, he lets us take it from him.
3. He laughs if I put the object in my mouth or bop myself on the chest or forehead with it.
4. If he did let go, I give it back to him.
5. Repeat until the sun burns out.

He loves knocking down towers.  Fortunately, I Smiley loves building towers with blocks or empty coffee cans for his brother to knock down.

He really loves Smiley's toy truck that goes by itself with batteries.  He will chase it, turn it on and off, toss it, and chew on it.  Balls are also good to chase, toss, and chew--especially if they make noise when shaken.

Because the gluten-free teething biscuit recipe I tried for Smiley never worked great, today I tried making baby-safe pancakes.  That did not work very well.  I'll try another version later this week.

Today he did his first climbing.  He has often tried before to get a knee up on top of a stair or other small height.  Tonight he actually climbed up on top of mommy as she lay on her back on the floor.

Today he also pushed a toy car across the floor for the first time.  Before he would often push a toy car back and forth in front of him.  But tonight he crawled along with it, pushing it twice across the floor.

Gallant's Second Tooth

Hm.  It's been a weeks since I did any blogging.

On February 19th I mentioned Gallant's first tooth in a timely manner.  He got his second tooth, the lower left front central incisor, the next day on February 20th.

No third tooth yet.  He has very swollen gums at his upper central incisors and the lower right second incisor.  It's a race to see which appears first.

Gallant's First Tooth

Smiley had his first two teeth when he was seven months old.

Today Gallant got his first tooth.  Like his older brother, it was his lower right front central incisor.

Hopefully Gallant will do better than his brother at acquiring teeth in the normal, least painful order.

She Bit Like a Crocodile

Recently xkcd asked for the worst name ever for a baby girl.

I nominate Boynamedsue.