Thursday, January 19, 2017

Day 98 - Thanksgiving is Coming...



More often than not, I feel as if I'm just making things up as I go.  The whole blogging thing?  In fact, there are days now and then where I'm sitting down, blankly staring at the cursor blinking on an otherwise blank 'Word' document.  Child rearing is no different in any way, shape or form.  It's like Ellie is the blank 'Word' document and her cry (and/or laugh) is the blinking cursor just waiting on me to do something.  The problem that lies within is that my utter lack of experience will continue to rear its head, even if I feel like I'm doing pretty well.  Please explain?  Ok, will do.


As you know, yesterday was doctor day for Ellie.  Well, in addition to her shots, we also got some specific instructions regarding her food intake.  Namely her doctor feels like it needs to increase.  Ellie's always kind of been a tiny baby in terms of her weight.  In fact, she's made a good habit of falling on and off the scale used to track that stuff on a consistent basis.  She's actually in the 2nd percentile for her weight right now and that's high for her!  Anyway, her doctor outlined a multi-step plan for how he wants us to proceed.

  • ·         Step 1 - For every five ounce bottle of milk, we need to add a teaspoon of formula
  • ·         Step 2 - Make certain that we are giving her a Vitamin D/Iron/Etc. supplement with each bottle
  • ·         Step 3 - Begin to feed Ellie solid food three times a day


Side note, I feel like there may be some kind of issue deep within me that I couldn't type the words 'Step 1' without immediately being overcome by an unquenchable desire to sing The Fray's 'How to Save a Life'.  I wonder where I went wrong...

Back on point, today was the first day for trying Ellie's new diet (or lack thereof).  After doing a little research, we discovered that Ellie's system could supposedly handle five ounces of solid food over the course of a day.  So beginning bright and early this morning, we opened up a fresh container of pears for Ellie and went to town.  Four big spoonfuls later and Ellie was showing disinterest and was clearly ready to be done.  Content with that, I put the remainder in the fridge to save for lunch time.  Once lunch time rolled around, I offered her another three and a half spoonfuls before she began turning up her nose at it.  Like any good parent, I chose to put it away and save it for later.



When dinner time arrived this evening, the pears reappeared on the kitchen table but Ellie's appetite for them was nowhere to be found.  Seriously, it needed to be on a milk carton somewhere.  Not only was she flipping her head from side-to-side to avoid the spoon but she was actually yelling at us for our attempts to feed her.  I know, we're such horrible parents.  

Here is where I reach my conundrum.  How do you go about increasing your child's food consumption without feeling like you're fattening up a turkey for Thanksgiving.  Seriously, talking about my child not weighing enough makes me feel like there's some kind of deadline that we have to meet or we'll be stuck with Tofurkey this year.  No one wants that at all.  



Honestly, I feel like Ellie's weight is right where it needs to be.  She's just always going to have a long and lean body type.  Especially if she's built like her mother and I.  The problem is that we pay her doctor to tell us how to raise her up well.  Which is needed because of the whole lack of experience thing that keeps rearing its head.  As long as she seems happy and healthy, then all should be copacetic.  I think.  #DaddyWrite

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