Little Dex

Some of you may know that we've been concerned about Dex's left ear since he was born. We spoke to the pediatrician at the hospital shortly after he was born and were told that it would be fine. Two weeks later, at the boys' first clinic visit, his ear had still not grown back the way it was supposed to. Again, the pediatrician dismissed out concerns, telling us it would be fine. At the two month appointment, she blew us off a third time, insisting that by 3 or 4 months of age, his ear would have grow to look like his right ear.

After failing his first three hearing tests, Dex saw an audiologist a little over a month ago, and was re-tested and passed. It was at this appointment, however, that the audiologist took one peak at his left ear and suggested we see a pediatric ENT. So, after several months of being told everything was fine with him, we took him in to see a specialist. At this appointment, we learned that he has a lop ear and will need surgery before the age of 5. It's nothing serious and we'll try to get it taken care of before he's old enough to feel self-conscious about it. What drives me CRAZY is the fact that the ENT said we could have fixed it ourselves if we had started taping his ear back after he was born. Earlier on, I had asked our pediatrician if taping would help and she said no, that it would just grow in on its own. AAGH! I get SO INCREDIBLY frustrated with preventable situations like this! I left our first few appointments feeling like an over-reacting mother and come to find out, my instincts were right. There as something wrong with his little ear, and it COULD have been fixed early one! Now the only solution is surgery.

Anyway, for the time being, we have a cute little boy with a cute little ear... and a tell-tale way to tell the boys a part. (Though, it's getting easier and easier every day!)