Red Book

When a child is born in the UK they are given a 'red book'. This book is the official, permanent record of their stats and growth charts, immunization schedules, etc. It's what you take to every appointment and what is required to enter school. Our friends had given us the heads up that it can be quite hard to obtain a 'red book' so we've been on the hunt since we arrived.

Well yesterday was our day.We took the kids to see a nurse who seemed pretty efficient at working the system. She spent a good deal of time with us discussing both kids - activities, eating & sleeping habits, etc - and gave them tasks to do to assess their development in different areas.

As we suspected, K is significantly delayed in his speech development. While he comprehends everything, he only speaks 5-10 words that anyone could understand and he often says those reluctantly (bribery seems to work). The nurse referred us first to get his hearing tested then if that's fine, to a speech therapist. She also suggested getting him involved in more activities with other kids so we'll look for some classes that he and Josh can attend together. J was more than a bit bummed and hopes that we didn't wait too long to address K's delay. The nurse assured us that they would likely not have recommended any action before age 2 anyway so no harm done.

Perhaps even more surprising was that K's height (34 in.) registered in the 25th percentile. This seems extremely low given that he's always been in the 90th percentile. I'm suspect. Of course, his weight (34 lbs.) was still at the 95th percentile mark! C was checked too - her height (41 in.) was 85 percentile and weight (44 lbs) 95th.

As a parting gift the kids were given activity bags with reading books, a drawing pad and crayons.See National Health isn't bad at all.