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I’m angry right now. I don’t know if it’s at myself, at Chinese manufacturers, or at the US companies who outsource toy production to these death factories to save a few bucks, but I’m angry and I’m frustrated and really really anxious.
TJ’s two year checkup was on Monday at noon. Grandma Kitty came along for moral support. He’s 29 lb 10 oz and 34 inches tall. He screamed throughout the whole exam, that whole White Coat Syndrome thing, but he was meeting all of the developmental checkpoints the doctor asked about… except for pedaling a tricycle, since he’d only just gotten one for his birthday three days earlier.
And they did the legally-required fingerstick to check the lead levels in his blood.
They called me back the same evening to tell me it came back elevated, and that they wanted me to bring him back in to have it drawn venously instead, just to be sure. We went back Tuesday morning, this time with Grandma Debbie in tow. He screamed, this time far more understandably.
The doctor’s office just called me about 15 minutes ago. The second test also came back elevated. The first test showed a level of 13. The second test showed a level of 12.3. Anything above 10 is considered unacceptable. The natural level in anyone’s bloodstream is ZERO, but whatever authority decides these things determined that a level under 10 doesn’t pose any serious health risks. Although they’ve been considering changing the acceptable level to less than 10 recently.
In the grand scheme of things, 12.3 isn’t outrageously higher than 10. From what I’ve read online so far – since I haven’t yet received the paperwork the doctor mailed out this afternoon, and the woman at Saratoga County Public Health wasn’t in her office – acute lead poisoning doesn’t occur until a level of around 45. But this lead is rather insidious, and will continue to build up in your blood and in your bones without any noticeable symptoms. Unchecked, you could find yourself at a rather high toxicity level that causes irreversible damage without knowing anything was wrong for years.
So I await a return phone call from Public Health, and can only read up on what the web has to tell me about making sure TJ has a diet rich in calcium and iron. The calcium won’t be a problem; he loves milk, and I buy juice that’s also fortified with calcium. The iron may be a little trickier, considering his picky habits, and I may need to ask the doctor about supplements.
I just want to fix this. Now. Lead poisoning is a scary thing, with irreversible damage possible to brain function. What caused this? We live in a relatively new house, built after the age of lead-based paint. But my parents don’t – their house is over 100 years old. But if they had a lead problem, wouldn’t it have shown up in the rest of us? I got screened for lead when I was pregnant, and all babies in New York are screened at age 1 and age 2. This wasn’t a problem on his first birthday. Do we have toys that haven’t yet been recalled that should be recalled because they contain lead? I’d already checked all of his toys against the lists of toys that have been recalled, and we didn’t have any of them.
Is lead responsible for some of the problems he’s been having lately? The night terrors? The digestive issues? Extreme temper tantrums?
I shouldn’t blame myself, but I worry that I haven’t been careful enough about what TJ interacts with on a daily basis.
More later, when I’ve heard from Public Health.
That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.
