Feeling a little discouraged today. I went to Aaron's 1 year check up and while he is overall healthy (though still anemic), he is also very underweight.... not even on the growth charts. Which means that both of my kids are underweight and are going in for weight checks. At least they can go in together now. But it does make me feel like a little bit of a failure as a mother. I am, afterall, the one with the primary (shared with matt) responsibility of making sure their needs are met... shelter, food, sense of security. It's not like we can't afford to feed our children and they have to go hungry, so I just don't know why we have this problem. But now we are on operation eat high calorie foods in this house (high calorie doesn't need to be junk food though). Lots of high fat dairy, protein, and carbs for the kids (while I struggle to stick to my high veggie and lean protein diet--good luck me) I go back in 6 weeks and we'll see how they are both doing then. Hopefully we'll have better news.
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So, our kids are just cute, and we've grown to accept that sumo wrestling and basketball may not be in their future. But they are healthy, eat fine, and have energy. So long as the kids aren't lethargic the doctor was fin with us just doing a growth hormone check for the kids.
Anyway, I do feel for you. We felt pretty helpless with both kids, but especially Colin. Thank goodness our primary doctor has been so supportive.
I definitely think the kids will just be on the smaller side, which is fine. I just want to make sure that we are doing what we need to be doing so they can have what they need in order to grow and be healthy :)
Thanks again for the comment!
As for snacks, we aren't incredibly good, but try. For Colin we found he likes breakfast, and especially eggs or snack bars. So we let him pick his own breakfast, and he ends up eating two snack bars for breakfast, which are somewhat high in calories. Then we do fruit for a morning snack (like berries, cherries, grapes or a sliced, peeled apple). Lunch and afternoon snack is at daycare, and he usually eats lunch, but the fruit and veggies for afternoon snack he doesn't eat much. For dinner we only serve what we all eat, but we tend to force him to eat half a piece of chicken and noodles, though h prefers cooked broccoli, green beans or corn, all with a little butter.
Rachel has been constipated for years (she still has accidents a few times a week at age 8) and have gotten Fiber One bars for her. Colin ends up eating them now, but they are somewhat high in calories. Overall though Rachel eats pretty well on her own, even with celiac disease.
Truly, figure out what Aaron and Dylan will actually eat, and then figure out how to get them lots of it. I've found that wile the kids like candy, they are jut as happy with sushi, edamame, fruits and vegetables, peanut butter or sausage (often Johnsonville cheese sausage). We don't have as much control during the day for their food, so it's nice you have a little more control.
I've had your blog registered in my RSS feeds, and so whenever you post it just shows up. It has been neat to see you write again. So apparently Jenn and I are the two cool people still reading your blog :)
Tom-- I didn't realize that Rachel has celiac... that must add a layer of difficulty to food issues. While Dylan likes a variety of healthy foods, he's still pretty picky, especially with meat. But he's at least at an age now where he understands the importance of getting enough to eat (in terms of what he needs to grow, be healthy, and have enough energy), so he is starting to take some responsibility for his own eating, which really helps. I love that you mention sushi though... Dylan loves sushi and edamame (but won't eat pizza--go figure). In general he likes asian food a lot, so we do that fairly often.
I just saw that you have some recent blog posts too... I definitely plan on reading them soon :) Right now though I need to get to sleep... I missed my bed time. Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it :)