our little man

10.23.2007

more on the weight front

so i got a call yesterday morning from our pediatrician's office. the nurse just wanted to pass on a suggestion from dr. brooks that we start giving ben some pediasure once a day to help him put on more weight. she had suggested this at the last weigh-in (the one at 10 months where he hadn't gained anything), but i had wanted to try just adding more to his meals and nursing him more often and seeing how that would work alone. well, he gained 10 ounces - that sounded great to me. i know that means he's still small, but it isn't as though he can gain it all at once!

anyway, i asked the nurse if adding the pediasure was something that we needed to do - was the doctor really worried. the nurse just said that we could try it for a month and see how he's doing at the next checkup. that kind of irritated me, but i was a bit flustered and didn't ask any other questions. i started thinking more and more about the whole situation and worrying about why ben was so small... was it something i was doing wrong? do they want to add the pediasure because he isn't getting enough milk from me? because i'm not feeding him the right foods? i had this horrible image of poor little ben feeling hungry and me not doing anything about it. i was just basically questioning myself as a parent and feeling like shit about everything.

but then i thought some more about it. ben isn't hungry all the time. i know this. he's got a great appetite, but he isn't asking for food all the time, either; when he's nursing, he sometimes pulls aways with a mouthful of milk, so i know he's getting enough; he's got plenty of wet diapers, so again i know he's getting enough milk; he's developing fine. most importantly, he's happy. he's just such a sweet, active, happy kid. he's pretty perfect, if you ask me. so he's a little small - i don't think that needs to mean that there's something wrong with him.

when i was at walmart, i bought a 6-pack of the pediasure... but then i thought more about that, too. for some reason it just wasn't sitting right with me. did they want us giving this to him simply for the extra calories? because if that's the case, i'd really just rather keep on with what we've been doing. i don't think he needs the nutritional supplementation that the pediasure provides, because we are very diligent with his diet in making sure that he's getting healthy, vitamin-rich foods. he only gets real stuff - homemade veggie and fruit purees or pieces, real cheese, plain whole milk yogurt, tofu, beans, and so forth. if its just a matter of extra calories, i'd rather him get it through food than from a drink like pediasure, which has an ingredient list about a mile long - the second ingredient is sugar, and most of the rest i can't pronounce.

it seems to me that gaining 10 ounes in one month says that what we've been doing is working. i don't want to overload him with calories all at once. that can't be good for him. sure, he's small right now, but he's headed in the right direction; like i said before - its not as though he can be expected to catch up all at once.

so when adam got home from work we talked it over and he had the same concerns. he actually ended up calling the nurse back and asking some more questions. after assuring adam that ben is perfectly healthy and very normal, she said that the only reason for the pediasure recommendation was to get extra calories into ben's diet. adam then asked what a "normal" baby would be expected to gain in a month. the nurse checked the chart and said that an average 11 month old weighs 22 pounds and that between 10 and 11 months would gain 8 ounces. so ben actually gained a bit more - right on par with what is considered "normal" for his age. i realize that they have a ton of patients and can't analyze every single situation the way a parent would, but i was a little irritated that they couldn't seem to look past the fact that he was a bit lower on his curve to see that he had gained a very reasonable amount and was now headed in the right direction. i don't know what they'd want - he certainly can't be expected to gain 5 pounds in a month and jump back up the 50th percentile. he's a little guy - he's probably going to stay a little guy for awhile. but he's growing, he's developing - isn't that the goal?

anyhow, we came to the conclusion that we're going to skip the pediasure and keep up the diet routine we've been using, which is basically just feeding him more and being sure that he's eating some high-fat, high calorie components in each meal. of course we want him to be getting his fruits and veggies - and he loves them! - but those aren't very high in calories... so we make sure to add other things into the mix. either he'll have a piece of cheese on the side, or i'll mix some cottage cheese in with his veggies. in the morning he always has whole milk yogurt and cereal mixed with his fruit. we make sure he's getting some good protein, too. he also eats a lot of avocado and other foods rich in good fats. and, of course, i'll continue to nurse him more frequently... i try to offer about every three hours, which is more like the schedule for a newborn rather than a nearly one-year-old, but he also sleeps well at night and only wakes once in the middle, so its still only coming down to 5-6 sessions or so per day.

this was very long-winded and probably only interesting to me, but this has been such a part of our lives for the past couple of months, i wanted to be sure i had recorded it. ben will look back later and hopefully see that his parents love him and care about him so very much and we're always trying our hardest to make the best decisions for him. we may not always be right (who can be?), but we try to get all of the information and knowledge we can and make our choices thoughtfully and deliberately.

posted at 9:51 PM by aimee // 0 comments