Grow Baby Grow

Today we visited the pediatrician. We've been going there every three months to monitor the bug's weight since it was determined that she's small for her age. Each time she proved to be doggedly clinging to her own little growth trajectory which pleased both the pediatrician and her regular doctor. 

But not this time. She's fallen off her curve and actually lost an ounce in the last month. Although we made an appointment to see the pediatrician in another three months she was unfazed by our tiny dieter's loss, pointing out that she was happy and engaged and ahead of the pack in the milestone department thanks to her newfound love of walking. She said she could be making adjustments to meet her genetic height and weight dispositions which sometimes happens at this age (in other words she's shrinking to accommodate a lifetime of littleness and front row class photos). Given that I was the one holding her this didn't seem entirely out of the question.   

Frankie's eating has probably been our biggest source of new parent anguish. For the first five days of her life she was much more interested in sleeping than eating. She got past this but never turned into a big eater. For many months nursing continued to put her to sleep and I'd have to tickle her ear to keep her up long enough to fill her belly. She made a seamless transition to solids and we've yet to find anything that she won't eat. Finding a way to keep her still and seated is another story altogether. 

She hates sitting still. Most days feeding her is a race against the pre-programmed four minutes that she'll tolerate high chair confinement. We're on our second high chair and are looking to pick up a third this weekend - something with a full body five point harness. Baby houdini has figured out how to free herself from the first two and crawl out onto the high chair tray in the hopes of leaping off and leaving behind her most despised contraption. She'd much rather be crawling or walking or exploring or bouncing or anything but sitting in the chair.  

This leaves me torn between making her eat more than she probably wants to and her developing healthy eating habits. All the baby books and websites stress how important it is to let babies assert their own fullness and for parents to respect fullness signals. Learning on their own when they are full and to subsequently stop eating is important especially at a time when so many children struggle with weight and obesity problems. This makes perfect sense but is also means no "just one more bite" and no airplanes coming in for a landing. Meals times should be devoid of trickery, games and bribes (even pony-based bribes). In Frank's case this means sometimes having to accept that she is only going to eat three bites.

We're hoping to visit with a dietician in the next few weeks to see if there's a way to increase the calories she consumes without having to significantly increase the quantity of what she'll eat. I suspect we're in for a "put butter on everything" prescription. Lucky girl.