...and knowing is half the battle
Cman saw a pediatric G.I. Joe specialist yesterday. It's so nice when a doctor actually agrees with you and sees that there's a problem. It's so nice when they listen to you about things that don't work and give you other options. It's so nice when they don't keep on suggesting the same thing over and over. It's so nice when they don't make you feel like it's your fault that your child won't eat sold food. So nice.
So I guess you can gather that the visit went well and that we really liked the doctor (as opposed to the pediatrician who wouldn't listen and kept pushing the solid food, when it obviously was not getting eaten by no fault of our own). Cman was weighed and measured. He lost another pound again since he's been sick for 10 days (cough, runny nose), so he's at 21.1 pounds (32.5 inches tall). He's 20 months old, so this put him in the 3% range, which I'm lead to believe is OK if your child has always been in that range. It is not OK however when the child has fallen down to that level after having been in a higher range most of the time.
The doc agreed that Chris was underweight and that something else had to be done. He told us that if he didn't want to eat solid food then we should go back to the pureed food (if that's what he liked to eat). He said he knew 3 year olds that still ate pureed food and there was nothing wrong with that. The point was to make him gain weight. He asked us to do the following things:
-Make his food with more fat. When cooking meat leave the fat in, when cooking chicken leave the skin on (it can be removed prior to pureeing it). After the meal has been cooked, add a tablespoon of (real) butter or olive oil to it. (It looks like my mom's healthy cooking habits are good for adults, but not good for growing toddlers that need more fat in their diets).
-Cut down on the fruits, let him get full on just the fatty food. Before we were giving him a bite of food and then a bite of fruit so that he wouldn't get bored of the same thing over and over, but the Dr. said to give him the fruit last if he still wants it.
- Give him one bottle of Pediasure per day (he liked it the first time he tried it, but now...not so much) in addition to the whole milk that he drinks.
- When he's full don't force him. If he wants to eat every three hours, then that's fine, but give him fatty snacks...perhaps some bread with butter.
-No juices (he doesn't like juice, so he doesn't really drink any).
I think that's about it. The doctor will also run the usual blood and poop tests to see if there is an underlying cause other than not enough fat in the meals. He will see him again in 8 weeks. Let's see how it goes!
I still owe you the answers from the movie meme and Chris said seven new words yesterday...SEVEN! So stay tuned for more posts this weekend.
So I guess you can gather that the visit went well and that we really liked the doctor (as opposed to the pediatrician who wouldn't listen and kept pushing the solid food, when it obviously was not getting eaten by no fault of our own). Cman was weighed and measured. He lost another pound again since he's been sick for 10 days (cough, runny nose), so he's at 21.1 pounds (32.5 inches tall). He's 20 months old, so this put him in the 3% range, which I'm lead to believe is OK if your child has always been in that range. It is not OK however when the child has fallen down to that level after having been in a higher range most of the time.
The doc agreed that Chris was underweight and that something else had to be done. He told us that if he didn't want to eat solid food then we should go back to the pureed food (if that's what he liked to eat). He said he knew 3 year olds that still ate pureed food and there was nothing wrong with that. The point was to make him gain weight. He asked us to do the following things:
-Make his food with more fat. When cooking meat leave the fat in, when cooking chicken leave the skin on (it can be removed prior to pureeing it). After the meal has been cooked, add a tablespoon of (real) butter or olive oil to it. (It looks like my mom's healthy cooking habits are good for adults, but not good for growing toddlers that need more fat in their diets).
-Cut down on the fruits, let him get full on just the fatty food. Before we were giving him a bite of food and then a bite of fruit so that he wouldn't get bored of the same thing over and over, but the Dr. said to give him the fruit last if he still wants it.
- Give him one bottle of Pediasure per day (he liked it the first time he tried it, but now...not so much) in addition to the whole milk that he drinks.
- When he's full don't force him. If he wants to eat every three hours, then that's fine, but give him fatty snacks...perhaps some bread with butter.
-No juices (he doesn't like juice, so he doesn't really drink any).
I think that's about it. The doctor will also run the usual blood and poop tests to see if there is an underlying cause other than not enough fat in the meals. He will see him again in 8 weeks. Let's see how it goes!
I still owe you the answers from the movie meme and Chris said seven new words yesterday...SEVEN! So stay tuned for more posts this weekend.
posted by Claudia at 10:35 AM
2 Comments:
So sorry you have had such a struggle to feed C and get him gaining weight. I hope my comment when you posted about this a month or so back didn't come off judgemental. I feel bad now that maybe my advice on dealing with what I thought sounded like a similar problem we had with Eliza might've come off judgy. Anyway, glad you got an expert to help you out, and I hope the C-boy gets a little padding on his cute little frame soon.
Oh no, don't worry about that. I didn't think that it was judgy...just you trying to be helpful. Thank you by the way.
This whole rant is mostly about the pediatrician who likes to lecture, but doesn't listen.
I'm glad to see you're back!
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