My parents rescued a sweet little kitten a few years ago. She was gorgeous, greyish soft fur that wrapped her tiny body, little white paws and a scrawny tail that you just wanted to tug a bit as she sauntered by. A few days into being new parents the kitten got sick, and stopped eating. They rushed her to the vet for an examination, and the vet took one look at the sweet little baby and said she isn't going to make it....
Reason: failure to thrive.
About a week or so after having my little one, to whom we now call " Boo", I was in the midst of being a new mommy and running after an active 4 year old at the same time with my head spinning in several different directions. Within that first week of his new life I noticed that my little had this amazing sweet smell to him...it lingered on his skin, and smelled exactly like "maple syrup". One day while my sister 'n law was snuggling our littlest on the couch, she looked at me and said with a chuckle, "Why does your baby smell like waffles?" I started to laugh and told her I had noticed the same smell a few days ago and didn't think much else of it.
As the days went on this amazing sweet aroma surrounded my baby. I noticed one day while changing his diaper that his poops smelled sweet, and I thought to myself, "now what baby has sweet smelling poops?" I figured it was just the way he was processing his formula, but something in the back of my mind was telling me something different. The old mother's intuition drew me to the computer one afternoon and as I typed in, "why does my baby smell like Maple Syrup" into the google search box...a laundry list of things popped up...and my heart hit the floor, as I read with absolute disbelief of an infant hood disease called,
"The Maple Syrup Urine Disease".
I immediately grabbed the phone sitting two feet from me, called my Pediatrician, and talked to the phone nurse. As I explained his smell, she got quiet and I got nervous....She started to explain to me what this "Maple Syrup Urine Disease" was all about...as she talked my heart started to race, my palms started to sweat, my arms felt so heavy as I held my teenie tiny little one in my left arm. As we hung up, tears rushed down my cheeks, and I turned my baby boy into my chest and hugged him as hard as I could....and the words from the phone nurse I never wanted to hear ran through my mind...in a worse case scenario...."he will fail to thrive".
I had my littlest 10 days before my son's 4th birthday, we had planned a small party for my son at our house to celebrate and today was the day, the same day I had called to calm my fears that my son was just a sweet smelling baby and all was just a co-incidence became a heart wrenching day. As my mom and my niece came through the door a few minutes after I hung the phone up, I walked over to my mom, unable to speak and just cried. After I caught my breath, I explained what the nurse had said, and we all started crying. Our sweet baby, our newest member of the family, my perfect dark haired "little bird" who looks exactly like his daddy, might have a crazy very rare disease called the "Maple Syrup Urine Disease".
When the pool man came home from work, the house was decorated with streamers and cake and a thrilled birthday boy...I whispered to the pool man when we had a moment alone that our sweet smelling baby might have "maple syrup urine disease", he just looked at me and started laughing and said with a grin on his face, "there is no such thing...", then he saw the look in my eyes as they swelled up with tears and without saying anything else, we sung happy birthday to our now 4 year old and cut into the cake, right down the middle of a smiling spongebob square pants!
We took our baby to the pediatrician that next day, and she looked him over, as he lay there completely content watching her poke and prod at him. She had mentioned that in all of her years of practice and schooling, she had never once actually come across a baby with this disease, but in the last three months, three children had come in smelling of waffles...our baby would be the youngest she would be treating if in fact he came back positive with the disease. This was such a rare disease, that she had to make several calls to make sure she was following the correct protocol, and with that she sent us home to wait until she knew exactly what needed to be done...
Monday came around and I got a message that our baby needed several blood tests and urine cultures. I had to take my two week old baby who hardly filled out his little newborn onsies, whose hair was coming in all crazy in the back of his head, but completely bald in the front to have blood drawn....watching a slender needle go into the top of his hand, broke my heart as his infant baby cries filled the sterile room. The technician had to try several different place and techniques in order to get enough blood, which meant several pokes and numerous tears from both baby and momma. We left together, snuggled into one another, praying and hearts beating fast as we flew out to the car and away from that place, away from what "could be".
A few days later, the results came back and sure enough our son, did not have this disease, it was a FLUKE, a fluke that could have changed my whole world, could have taken my son from us...
Reason: Failure to Thrive.
My son is now a healthy 6 month old baby boy, who is just about ready to crawl...and gives his momma the biggest smiles when she walks through the door. My son, whom I chat with on a regular basis about the goodness of people, about the birds who fly in flocks above our heads and who quite possibly have the best view of life as we walk under the sunshine...we talk about what a precious gift God gave me when he placed my son into my arms....my son, thankfully...THRIVED.
I write this as a reminder to parents, to always use your intuition. It can be a life saving tool we mommies and daddies posses. We know our babies better then anyone else. We know when something is not right or in this case something may not have been right. Even though our baby had to go through some blood tests and some pokes and prods, it was worth it to know he would be ok. Ask the questions you need to ask, if you don't get the answers from your pediatrician go somewhere else if that constant feeling of uncertainty lingers in the back of your mind. If you feel in your heart you need to seek further help, do it!
You are your babies voice, make it be heard.
I am so blessed to have these amazing boys, each one having a moment in their lives in which I had to second guess their health....I am blessed to be able to tuck each one in at night, to kiss their soft cheeks and tell them a million times over how special they are and how proud I am to be their momma!
I stash moments like these, moments where being a mom can tug at every heart string simultaneously like a symphony into my heart, and at night I thank God for keeping them safe, & for keeping them with me. For we are not guaranteed eternity with our littles as much as I try to never think about this, moments like these are a reminder of how precious life is, how precious our children are and as long as they are under my wing, I will protect them and snuggle them close each night.
Blessings from this momma of 2 to you~
