Nalani was born a healthy 7 lb 14 oz. Her weigh ins placed her in the 50th percentile right up until she learned the joys of movement. From the moment she started to army crawl across the floor to now as she learns to walk she dropped from the 50th to the 20th percentile. Because of this drop we have made monthly visits to her doctor to keep an eye on her weight and to make sure she is still gaining.
During one of these visits we were given papers to go get blood work taken to make sure nothing else was affecting her weight gain. Now I don’t like getting blood taken, but to have to pin your child down while she screams so that they can get blood out of her tiny little arm….I will never complain about my bloodwork again. Thank goodness all the blood work came back just fine. My little girl is petite. We make our monthly visits and get her weighed to find out each month that she has put on 1/2 a pound each time.
This used to concern me. Was I feeding her enough, was she getting the right nutrition, am I doing something wrong?? Until I stopped and thought back to when the slow weight gain began. Nalani is a mover!!! Sitting still is not in her repertoire. From the moment she wakes until her naps and bedtime she is on the go. The joy she gets just chasing me around the house as I go about my day makes me laugh.
I feed her 3 meals a day and provide her with snacks as well as her formula (she is still under 1). She eats as she wills and I won’t force her to eat anything. I want her to have a good relationship with food not a negative one. By making sure she is eating healthy and getting 3 meals a day I have noticed a difference in my eating habits as well. I make better choices now as what she sees me eat is what she wants to eat. So if I don’t want her to have something I don’t eat it in front of her. Don’t get me wrong we have made some bad food choices but those are not a daily occurance. Maybe 3 times a month we have a “treat” and eat some McDonalds or the likes.
So now when we go in to get her weighed I know in my own heart that no matter what the scale says she is perfectly healthy. My active little girl would not be the bright eyed bushy tailed little trouble maker that she is if she wasn’t getting enough to eat.