the 'metal look'

[Shannon]

Can we create a gallery of babies with known metal issues? And babies that we know do not have metal issues?

See Elisabeth's description at mothering

[TanyaL]

Okay, these were the best I could find. I tried to choose pics where the kids had neutral expressions (rather than big grins).

My daughter at 6mo (sitting in a high chair), 16mo (standing in a blue dress), both kids with DH when my daughter was about to turn 3 and my son was 7mo, and my son at 23mos (standing in front of a building with lots of arches--the Rice campus actually). ... will add 4th pic to the next reply, looks like we're limited to 3 attached files.

[TanyaL]

Last pic, this one of my son at age 23mos.

Looking at his face--the heart-shaped jaw, I don't think that's a good sign, I think it goes along with his anterior tongue tie (heart-shaped tongue, even though he nursed quite well), and the v-shape to his bottom teeth (pointing at the tongue tie). He's also got a posterior TT (I suspect), and a high, arched palate. His top two front teeth are close to each other, but not making a v-shape. It's his bottom teeth that show the crowding more (they're very evenly spaced, and it's only the front two that really show the crowding).

It's harder to see with my daughter, she only has a posterior TT, and I think that's visible in the middle third of her face, her nose is a little pinched (she has a high, arched palate--and she, too, nursed fine). She only has a little bit of the pointy-chin thing going on.

[ellasmama2007]

ella doesnt have known metal issues but she might fit that description. i dont know, what do you think? im testing her for metals using the urine porphyrin test as soon as i can get an adequate sample.

[TanyaL]

I'm not sure if any of us have a good idea of what this really looks like except for Panserbjorne/Sonnambula. I know I can't see one way or the other with my kids--they just look like my kids. Maybe at some point we can point her over here and see if she can teach us a bit. And I'd cross-post my pics to the midline defect thread to discuss the fine points of tongue ties and pointy chins and stuff like that.

[Shannon]

Something I saw the other day has me wondering if it's a clue. Dd is a huge chubbabub. Born at 10lbs, 22lbs at 4mo, over 34lbs at 26mo. She's SOLID. I won't say all muscle, cause there's not much definition (though there is some) but I wouldn't say poofy. And I'm not suspecting metals for us (yet).

I saw another baby who was also a chubbabub, and as his shirt came off, the skin at his nipples totally folded over, man-boob style. There's no way dd's skin could do that. I'm wondering if that could be a slightly less subjective of this poofy/metals look?

[TanyaL]

Interesting, I didn't realize that was possible for a kid. But I don't know how to apply it to my kids, for example. They've usually been on the big side (except for the long stretch after we started gfcf and they seemed to really slow down in growth) but they're fairly height-weight proportionate, and it seems like you need extra weight for height in order to have that as a possibility. I could try poking and prodding the kids here and there and see if I can find some oddities. :p And I agree that at this point, metals don't seem to be your issue, and I'm hoping your issues all resolve well in a fairly timely fashion.

Shannon said:

Something I saw the other day has me wondering if it's a clue. Dd is a huge chubbabub. Born at 10lbs, 22lbs at 4mo, over 34lbs at 26mo. She's SOLID. I won't say all muscle, cause there's not much definition (though there is some) but I wouldn't say poofy. And I'm not suspecting metals for us (yet).
I saw another baby who was also a chubbabub, and as his shirt came off, the skin at his nipples totally folded over, man-boob style. There's no way dd's skin could do that. I'm wondering if that could be a slightly less subjective of this poofy/metals look?

[Shannon]

it wasn't just sitting there, folded over - the shirt did that. It just struck me as odd to see, since it never happens on dd and she's the definition of huge. May as well upload more pics to show what I'm talking about :)
10 weeks
5 months

[TanyaL]

Okay, I think I get it now. And wow, she is so darn cute!

[Jane Bertone]

TanyaL said: my son at 23mos (standing in front of a building with lots of arches--the Rice campus actually). ..

Tanya! This picture is soooo familiar. I graduated from Rice in 2003. Arches arches everywhere. (and what a cutie!)

[TanyaL]

See I almost didn't respond because I graduated from Rice, but it feels like a long time ago, and I was so grateful to be done that I always forget the year. :o I graduated in 98--I had to ask my husband, how pathetic is that? It was neat to go back to the campus, but it's looking more and more different. I like how some of it is filling in. I need to go back to Duncan Hall, it was new near the end of my time there and it was neat to have something cool and funky for the engineers (vs Abercrombie).

Jane Bertone said:

TanyaL said: my son at 23mos (standing in front of a building with lots of arches--the Rice campus actually). ..

Tanya! This picture is soooo familiar. I graduated from Rice in 2003. Arches arches everywhere. (and what a cutie!)

[Jenny]

Finally made it over here to post some pics. (BTW, gosh you all have cutie pies!!)

Here is DS at 9 months old. I think it is really hard to convey this look in a picture, but I think you can see it in his legs in the first picture. People would look at him (especially his legs and cheeks) and mistake it for chubbiness, but in fact at this point he was in the 75th% for height, but only the 30th% for weight!

I took some pictures yesterday trying to get the puffiness in his cheekbones. Will come back and post those at some point. I'm going to post two pictures of my DD next when she was the exact same age. As far as I know, she does NOT have metal problems although I'll be testing her as well. DS is the one with the test results that imply metal problems.

OK, so these two are of DS:

[Jenny]

These are pictures of my DD, who like I said does not have metal issues (although I don't know for sure.) She looks chubby, but that's because she WAS chubby. She was 50th% for height but 80th% for weight.

So to me, it seems like my DS was/is puffy, whereas my DD was chubby.