Newborn Screen

Well, Eben is going to give us a little bit of chasing. We got a call from the MN Department of Health yesterday morning, followed up by a call from our clinic asking us to bring Eben in as soon as we were able. So, after finishing nursing, he and I drove over, not having any idea what we were looking for.

We are cautiously optimistic that we're looking at a false positive test result for galactosemia.

Eben, upon examination by the doctor at the clinic (who openly stated that he's never in his career seen a child with galactosemia, so had earlier in the day spent 20 minutes on the phone with a specialist at the U of MN, but does know how to look for liver symptoms, which would be the first clinically noticeable signs) appeared to pass with flying colors. Still, he wanted Eben to have blood work done to check his liver function beyond just visual symptoms. A diagnosis of galactosemia would require a lifetime of eating a lactose free diet, starting with eliminating breast milk immediately and switching to a soy formula.

I have never had to bottle feed any of my children. I don't know how to do it!! (But could learn.)

Our clinic doesn't do venous blood draws on little kids, much less 8 day old newborns, so Eben and I made a trip downtown to the hospital. We got a fantastically experienced young woman who got the right spot on the first try, and there was very little crying on either Eben or Mom's part.

Waiting in the lobby to get called back to the lab.

Our doctor was reassured enough by Eben's looks that he told me we could consider nursing through that night to wait for the results, because Eben should have already been showing signs of issues if he was truly dealing with galactosemia. We did so, and his lab results Friday morning confirmed that there are no current issues with his liver, but we still get to have a visit at the U of MN clinic this morning to look further into the question of *why* the reading was so low in the first place. I'm hoping that they simply re-run that part of the screening test and just get a clean result, but in the meantime, we wait to see what we find out.

And, because they grow SO FAST in these early days, here's a more current picture of Eben this morning with Rinnah - he'll be 12 days old today!