I may need to eat my words

About 10 days ago I took Emily to the doctor's to try to get some insight as to why she's just a pipsqueak - 12lb 8.5oz at six months is pretty small, and at one point she fell off the bottom of the growth curve. I'd booked an appointment with the GP who is meant to be the baby specialist at the practice, but wasn't terribly impressed with him. He barely looked at her, and simply said that we needed to do a urine test since she might have a urine infection.

I went away scoffing at this patently ridiculous suggestion, since she had no symptoms to suggest that this might be the case, and cursing that I had to sit there trying to catch wee in a pot. But catch it I did, and today the results came back. Guess what? She's got a urine infection. Shows what I know then.

Having done some Googling I'm still a bit confused. The doctor said that a urine infection in a baby was quite rare and that there may be an anatomical reason for it (oh great....just drop that bombshell and leave me to wait for Monday's appointment for more details). But the internet seems to suggest it's reasonably common in young children and that, if not dealt with, could be serious e.g. by causing kidney problems, possibly even permanent ones if left for a long time.

So, all in all I'm glad I took her in - she's now on antibiotics so it should all clear up. Hopefully once it's gone her appetite and her weight will improve - that'd be nice! On the downside, I may need to do another urine test with her to make sure it's cleared up, oh hooray.