I am totally with you on the instinct thing – Inigo is only 9 months old and I’ve already had two serious issues where my instinct saved him.

The first was before he was born, I noticed that his movement was reduced, I took myself off to hospital and they decided that I needed an emergency c/s. He had aspirated meconium, spent a week on oxygen – but we were lucky that he has no long term consequences. Because I trusted my instincts, we got him out quickly, and his lungs are healthy and strong.

Three months later, he stopped gaining weight. Doctors told me he was fine, paediatricians treated me like a pathetic, paranoid first time mother. One even told me that giving him some rice cereal (at 4 months old) would “soon sort him out”.

I listened to my instincts, insisted on seeing another paed – who took me seriously. She sent him off for a raft of tests, and we finally found out that he had a bladder infection. By the time we had a diagnosis, and started anti-biotics, he was well below the third percentile for weight, and he had to be hospitalised to have his weight gain supervised.

Of course, I was also under scrutiny for neglect/abuse, which really added to the strain – but if I hadn’t trusted my instinct (and the first experience really helped with that), it could have been so much worse.

Now of course, he’s going great guns, and I have to let go of my paranoia!

Recently we were fighting our gut instinct, which was to have Eli get tubes put in his ears. I thought it would be a hassle or really painful for him or ultimately unnecessary. But when we came around, we realized we were wrong on every count. It was easy, it didn’t hurt him at all and there were zero side effects, and it helps him hear better. His vocabulary is already growing steadily as a result, too.