Blair hosts a popular meme called McFatty Monday on her blog, and I hope she doesn’t mind if I borrowed the title (sort of) for my post today – consider it an homage.
Clearly, at 18 months old, I’m not worried about that McFatty stuff – although, apparently, I should be. Let me ‘splain: on Friday, I had a well-care appointment with Dr. Andy – since all that asthma stuff was barely 2 weeks ago, I feel like we’ve been seeing a LOT of that guy lately, but whatever.
I was confident going into my appointment: I am strong, and active, and verbal, and bright – what could Dr. Andy have to say?
A lot, as it turns out.
The first thing they do whenever we go to the doctor is weigh and measure me. Mommy is going to start sewing little weights into my diapers – the first time Diana put me on the scale, it read 21 pounds 1 ounce – 9 ounces *less* than at 15 months (and 1 ounce less than 3 weeks ago).
Mommy made her weigh me again.
I’m almost as big as a fake goose. Does that count for nothing?!That dumb scale refused to budge, though, and 21 pounds 1 ounce was recorded as my official weight for this go round. In my defense, I got my first stomach bug on Thursday evening – right before my appointment Friday morning.
No, seriously, I threw up twice – SURELY they’d take that into consideration, right?
Wrong. Dr. Andy said that wouldn’t really make that much of a difference (really? because Mommy had the same bug, and she credits that with her 2.2 pound drop at WW this week. Because it probably wasn’t the Daddy’s-on-vacation diet of dim sum, “Really Cheesy – Really Crunchy Mac n Cheese” (with bacon. and bread crumbs on top. ohmigod, YUM.), and three kinds of scones with preserves and cream.) and put me back on liquid gold Pediasure. And I have to go back for another weigh-in in two weeks.
Did you all bring your abaci? Because it’s math time! At 21 pounds 1 ounce, I place in the 2nd percentile (down from the 12th) according to the CDC, and in the 11th percentile (down from 31st) according to the WHO. Was that enough numbers? Because here’s some more: I grew 1.1 inches in the past three months so, at 31.1 inches, I place in the 18th percentile (UP from the 17th!) of the CDC chart, and in the 11th (no change at all) according to the WHO.
Did you notice? I’m in the 11th percentile for height AND weight according to the WHO… that doesn’t actually mean anything, though.
ANYWAY. Dr. Andy told Mommy she should give me 2-3 bottles of Pediasure a day, in addition to my regular food. Righ…t. First of all, after a bottle of Peediasure? I’m not eating anything else. So that “in addition to my regular food” thing just doesn’t work. I normally have a fairly hefty appetite, but, since Friday, I have barely eaten any solid food. Secondly, something in that Pediasure stuff is messing with my tummy because, well, it’s making it difficult to fill my diaper (to put it delicately) and THAT makes me want to eat even less… and it makes me not want any more Pediasure. So yesterday? I had 1 bottle of Pediasure, about 10 ounces of watered down apple juice, and 3 prunes. That hardly seems like an improvement from my normal 3-meals-plus-assorted-snacks routine.
So Mommy will be calling Dr. Andy *again* today – and possibly finding a local pediatric nutritionist.
P.S. But I threw up! Really? I bet I gained, like 2 pounds already…
We went through this SAME THING with Little Evan – except he went from the 75th percentile to the 50th – and the doctor still freaked out. She told me I should feed him ANYTHING to make him gain wait – butter, chocolate, ice cream, more butter. I told her that sounded crazy and just offered him more peanut butter sandwiches. He gained weight at every follow up appointment and is now on a steady 50% curve.
My theory is weight is one of the only factors a doctor can use to judge if a baby is being well taken care of. They're not in your house to see how you love on him or play with him or how active he is, so they REALLY freak out if they lose weight.
When M went for his 18 month checkup, they totally freaked me out as well. He lost a little. I can't remember the exact number at the moment. That was also when he was going through a very selective eating phase! The doctor said to do Pediasure. Oh my, he hated it! Would not eat it whatsoever. It totally stressed me out. I felt horrible. I mean I know I wasn't starving him. He was just an active little boy.
Anyways, we had to go back the next two months to have him weighed again. He eventually gained weight. Now at 22 months he's 29.2 lbs. I really didn't change much. He's still pretty selective. But he eats a lot of peanut butter, chicken, cheese ( boy does he love cheese!!), etc.
In summary ( sorry for the novel) it's totally stressful when the doctor is worrying about their weight. One thing is good about it is: the doctor is proactive. Always a good thing.
Mr. Cole, keep us updated on your weight gain!
You'll grow, little monkey. It will happen. And when it does, your mother will remember fondly the days of $100 weekly grocery bills.