10:31 a.m. - June 15, 2006
Here Kristin - Have Some Butter!
My one year old just got the advice that I think almost every adult would love to have.
It was her one-year checkup, where the doctor looks her over with a fine tooth comb, they analyze her development, and give her some immunizations shots (MMR, Hepatitis A, and Chicken Pox if I recall correctly). They measure and weigh her as well.
Basically, they do everything a space alien would do to us if we were abducted, except for the probe in some regions (allegedly!).
I can�t imagine it�s that pleasant, really, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Liz is teaching Vacation Bible School this week, and Katie is attending (and somehow accumulating a lot of coins there � hmmm � bribery?) and with a very tight afternoon schedule, with Katie�s swim class ending right before they have to get to the church to prepare the lesson, Liz basically does a baby drop to me at about 5:15 every day.
Tuesday, she said that Kristin was fine and her appointment went well. She took three shots in the thighs but hasn�t really had any lingering affects from them. When Katie was a wee wee one, and she got her immunizations, she was in a funk for about a day, but Kristin seems to be resilient.
Then she gave me the breakdown of the height and weight.
Before that, though, I want to give some context. (Hah, it�s like a cliffhanger, isn�t it? Heeee!)
The birth mother is short and is stocky. In her family, there is some height, as her brother (I think) is 6�2 or so, but the birth mother isn�t tall.
Katie�s birth father isn�t very tall either � 5�8 or 5�9 if I remember.
Kristin�s was taller � 5�10 or 5�11, but not a giant by any stretch of the imagination.
Katie was about a pound heavier at birth.
All through the time when Katie was a baby and a toddler, she was always at 50% or higher percentile in height, but always at about 75% percentile in weight.
We asked our pediatrician if we should be concerned about the weight being higher, percentile wise, but was told that it was no issue, because she was eating healthy foods (and she was!)
Now, Katie is a tall girl for her age, and still has some weight on her. She�s at around the 75% to 85% percentile in height and weight.
Katie loves to eat fruit, does like veggies, likes to drink milk and water, and does a good job with her entrees. She loves chicken, turkey, spaghetti, and pot roast. Of course, she loves daddy�s breakfast bonanza (but thankfully stops at one piece of bacon � that way there�s more for me � HAH!) and even though if she had her way there�d be plenty more cake and ice cream, it did my heart good that the last time we had a family get together Katie diligently ate her carrots and broccoli before diving into the dessert.
So I�m not too worried about Katie. Yes, with her birth mother and birth father there is some concern about obesity, but as long as both Liz and I are good examples then I think she�ll be fine.
Then there�s Kristin. She was always smaller � she always hovered at around 33% to 50% in height and smaller in weight.
At her one year appointment she was 50% in height and 25% in weight.
Hmmmm�
She drinks a lot of formula, but not as much as Katie, if I recall. (When our formula is out we can now switch her to whole milk, which will save us $75 a month � yeah!) She�s not eating processed baby food anymore � she�s eating actual table food.
That is quite entertaining, really. Sure, it�s messy as heck, but it�s fun to watch her pick up a piece of an apple or a cantaloupe and take that first taste of fruit and then grab four or five more pieces of it. She loves fruit, will eat veggies and meat, but her single favorite is Cheerios. (OK, what child doesn�t like Cheerios at age one? Hands? OK!)
Tuesday, I had leftover turkey from Sunday and some mashed potatoes, and I gave some to Kristin. She shoveled turkey and mashed taters in her mouth � and then started to wave it around everywhere.
(Kristin is that age where she must SHOW YOU everything!)
Then the taters got in the hair. Of course, I was wondering if she could absorb the nutrition and calories into her body that way.
There wasn�t any time for Liz to expound on what the doctor said until she got home and put Katie to bed, so after the tater-in-the-hair resulting in toddler-in-the-bath and bedtime, I asked Liz what we were to do about Kristin.
Basically, we�re doing fine. This is probably the way Kristin grows. We�re feeding her what she wants to eat � she never leaves hungry.
But the doctor told us to do one thing.
Coat everything in butter.
Butter!
Veggies and meat, when we give them to her, they are supposed to be coated with butter.
�Butter?�, I asked. Butter has really been vilified, and well, there�s a reason for it, because too much of it can lead to some issues.
�Yes, butter! She said butter is healthy!�
Oh, if I had a tape recorder when she said that!
Actually, our pediatrician is right, as odd as it seems for health conscious adults to fathom.
Butter will give her the calories she needs to put on some weight. Kristin is NOT at an unhealthy weight, but it would be advisable for us to try to get some more weight on her. The human body can digest butter a lot better than margarine. Since Kristin is not lactose intolerant, that seems to be a no brainer, really. Give her something that will agree with her, and will add weight to her.
But, butter. When I see we have some butter. I make some popcorn and I melt some butter and just go to town.
(Of course, this writer is someone who ensures that no piece of bacon is uneaten in the house, so go figure.)
What this is all reminding me is that kids are all different. Not seeing the birth fathers adds some mystery, but Katie, coming from the smaller birth father is taller, heavier, and has brown eyes and darker hair.
Kristin is smaller, skinnier, with lighter hair, blue eyes, but her hair is curlier than Katie�s (if THAT�S possible!)
And it also reminds me on how weight is variable on many, many things. Our body is just a mystery, you know. My metabolism did a huge paradigm shift in my 20�s, and by the time I reached 35 I weighed 70 pounds more than I did at 18. I have scaled that back a bit, thankfully, so I�m not a walking coronary with permanent baby back rib breath.
My doctor appointment is in a couple of weeks, and I had better lay off the bacon and the frozen pizza for a while.
Ok, yes, I should most of the time � but as I was telling Rachel yesterday, I get ready for a checkup like I do for a dentist appointment. �Oh, crap, I see the dentist in a week. Better get to flossing!
Also, Liz had better hide the butter in a super secret place. Otherwise, I may feel the need to make some popcorn.
