Hormonal Imbalance

In a household of men, we generally try to keep hormones at bay.  Ben has taken this a step too far and they have determined that he has Hypothyroidism.  This is common in children and adults with down syndrome (about 10% at birth).  Hypothyroidism means that he has a malfunctioning thyroid gland and his body does not produce enough of the hormone, Thyroxin.  The Thyroxin hormone, promotes growth of the brain and some other important parts of the body...but we can stop at the brain, it is kind of a big one.

Luckily, this is very easy to treat and correct.  Ben will require a daily dose of the Thyroxin hormone for the rest of his life and it is basically as simple as that.  We will just need to give him the hormone his body is not developing and all is well. Now...on to the issue of who is going to make sure he takes his pill EVERY day.  Seeing as how Parker has had approximately 3 daily vitamins in his 5 years of life, we are somewhat concerned for Ben.

This new finding has introduced us to a new field of medicine, endocrinology, and also allowed us to interact with doctors #42 and 43 that have had something to do with Ben's care.

In other news, we are still working on getting Ben to suck on a pacifier and then he gets to move up to trying to eat from a bottle, once he learns how to suck.  To provide some perspective, we are two days in on the attempts at the pacifier.  After about 5 minutes he gets all wore out and enters his favorite comatose state. But he is at least waking up some and giving us a glimpse of his eyes.

Pre-Sucking Lesson:

5 minutes later...