9 Month Doctor Visit
The Squeaker’s pediatrician said she wasn’t gaining enough weight and she should be sitting up on her own by now. Normally I’d just blow it off. After all, doctors are like auto mechanics; they’re specialists at what they do, but their opinion is just that, an opinion. And another doctor at another shop will give you another opinion.
The only problem is that I appreciate our pediatrician’s opinion.
To date, we’ve kind of let Squeak guide us as to her needs. If she wants to eat, we feed her. If she doesn’t, we don’t. And when it comes to crawling, she’s a speed demon – little sonic booms follow her as she races from toy to toy.
And she loves to prop herself up on her side when she’s got her toys spread around here in some sort of Abercrombie & Fitch meets Kids R Us photo layout.
And, and, and…
Well, it sounds to me like I’m trying to justify my parenting style. Well, I’m not.
At least not much.
But since the Doc went to all the trouble to make some helpful suggestions – increase carbs & proteins, sit Squeak upright with pillows around her, etc, etc. – we’ll give it a try.
You'd think I'd be a natural at packing on the pounds... well, I am. But only for me. So any suggestions for helping the little missy put on a few lbs would be appreciated.
PS – Sorry for no Turkey Day post; P.Pie & I were sick. All we did was cough and hack around the house – no turkey, no stuffing, no nothing. Just sick.
Yeah, it sucked.
posted by Rob Barron at 9:01 PM
4 Comments:
I went through this with my little one, as it turns out she has a very fast metabolism, and just doesn't gain. But that doesn't mean we haven't tried like heck!
We added fat to her food, sure honey, lets add more butter to those noodles. You want cream cheese on white bread, sure!
We also made sure that even when we are busy out and about she had snacks to eat. We refocused on her formula making sure she drank that first, then gave her baby cereal 2 times per day and as much baby food/table food as she would eat.
I personally would not worry about her not sitting upon her own if she is crawling. She just hasn't had a need to do it yet...
I understand how you feel about your pediatrician, I love ours. I do, in fact if she were to move I'd be heart broken and consider driving 2 hours to see her....
I know you love your ped, but take it with a grain of salt. Especially the weight gain issue. The scale their are using is the national "average." All you hear about is how overweight our kids are in America, yet when you have a baby on the slight side you get all kinds of grief over it.
My dd is still on the tiny side. Our new ped (we had moved) freaked out at her weight and tried to claim FTT. But she was hitting all her milestones so we tried not to worry about it. We give her a special pediatric protein drink once a day just to be sure she gets her nutrition. Since she didn't have the regular baby fat, once she started walking she looked REALLY tiny. If you know that your little one is eating what she should, I think all will be well.
Listen to those other posters. Doctors are always scaring parents of lighter weight children. As long as she's doing fine on the growth curve, it's fine if she stays in, say, the 5th percentile for weight. It's really only a problem if she stops gaining weight entirely. (And it's normal for babies around her age to slow on their weight gains, so don't worry about that too.
Meanwhile, I just wanted to say I love your blog (I wish I could remember how I stumbled on it, but I'm glad I did) and I'm tagging you for the "7 Random Things" meme. See http://sickmomma.blogspot.com/2007/12/random-things.html for details.
And I'm sorry your Thanksgiving sucked. I hope you choose another random day to celebrate with a festive meal. It's not like the pilgrims necessarily did it on the 4th Thursday in November!! :)
I have been reading your blog ever since Squeaker was born but dont think I commented till. now
My daughter weighed 7 kgs at 8 months and at 2 1/2 yrs now she weighs 11kgs....doesn't mean a thing. Luckily I didn't think too much about it since I am the same too.
I'm sure your paed is good and means well, but if your baby is active and healthy, weight doesn't really need to be as per the "chart".
And she will sit up soon....right now floor level is waay too exciting!
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