It’s time for a long overdue update about Lewis!

Our sweet little dude has been mostly trucking along with his 3-year-old ‘tude in tow. He’s a volatile, unpredictable, pretty awesome little guy. Most of the time, we’re enjoying the heck out of him. But there are a lot of moments where we…. um… don’t enjoy him. At all.

The screaming/tantrums over every single thing, the defiance, and the hours-long bedtimes are just the pits. And on top of those things, Lewis has been having a hard time with his appetite and his energy levels lately.

That last issue actually brought us to the doctor last week. He’s been so fatigued that he wouldn’t even participate in things that he loves. He will decline going to the park, riding his bike, doing puzzles, playing soccer, etc., saying he is “too tired” and needs to lay down. This is concerning behavior for a 3-year-old, and we weren’t sure if there was a physical explanation (like low iron, something I’ve suffered from in the past), or if he just needed to quit his bedtime shenanigans and get some rest.

Poor buddy ended up having to get a blood draw after the doctor’s visit escalated from a quick consult/finger prick to check iron levels to a full-blown blood panel. The doctor was immediately more concerned about what might be going on due to Lewis’ fatigue combined with his weight loss.

Dammit, he’s losing weight again. The doc said that combo could be an indication of some more serious explanations, and that it was best to test for those serious things and rule them out instead of just assuming it’s lifestyle/behavioral. Fine. Ok. Makes sense.

The blood draw was terrible. Lewis was amazing and stayed super still, but he screamed bloody murder (pun intended), and I felt horrible. Although it was a little funny that what he screamed was, “IT HURTS! I NEED A BANDAID! I NEED A BANDAID!” Such a 3-year-old kid’s response… something hurts, get a bandaid and it will be fine.

BUT! The blood panel results were good. Low vitamin D levels, which are not an explanation for his issues, but good to know. We’re going to put him on a multivitamin with the recommended 600 IU’s of D3. Problem solved.

The downside to a good blood panel is that without the physical explanation for his symptoms, we’re down to lifestyle/behavioral explanations. AKA we’re back to trying to force Lewis to eat and sleep.

Sigh… we all know how well that has been going. If we knew how to get him to eat and sleep, we wouldn’t be in this boat in the first place!

The doctor did have a serious talk with Lewis about eating, and I think he understood. For example, I asked him what he wanted to do the other evening, and he said, “Here’s my plan. We’ll go home, we’ll play, and then I’ll eat a looooooootttttt of dinner, and then we’ll play again. Is that a good plan?”

In that scenario, he did not, of course, eat a lot of dinner. But he did remember that the doctor wanted him to, so that’s a start. We’re using that, and I think we’re getting a few more bites in him by reminding him what the doctor said. Time will tell if it makes an impact on the scale…

As for sleep, I ordered him some kids’ melatonin. It’s really low dose, but he’s old enough to take it, and I think getting him to sleep faster in the evenings will really make a difference in how he feels during the day. Crossing fingers that works!

That’s it. Sweet Lewis, always challenging us! Gotta love him!