So Bumper had her one year check up this past week. I don't really dread the height, hearing, eye and all the inbetween check-up or even the vaccination-wrestlemania but I do not like the weigh-in portion.
To start, the doctor has a poor baby scale. It was okay for when she was 4 weeks old and immobile but now that she is a swinging-from-the-rafters one-year old, I doubt the validity of his measuring intruments. No one is that quick and percise with a non-digital scale. No way. I dread the scale portion because she is so light but tall. Her size makes sense to me even though she sometimes drifts below her percentage every so slightly. I'm tiny and husband is slight and tall so I have no issues with her size until appointment time arrives. After the weight portion I always end up leaving the doctor's office thinking "I'm not getting her to eat enough! I'm such a crappy mom! Gah!".
And this past week was no different. Once again he asked me to come back in a few weeks to weigh her again (because I challenged his scale) and since then I've been running around trying to tempt Bumper to eat anything (except for cardboard which she really loves).
Tonight the "anything" was peas. I followed her around while she was busy rearranging couch cushions (or maybe she was looking for spare change). I carried the bowl of peas and she would stop every so often, beckon me over and take one pea. Just one. But the important thing was she ate it and she did. She ate many and my arm hurt from holding it steady and strong while she picked out just the right pea. That pea usually required a quick chase around the bowl and other peas. Darn those pesky peas, so slippery and quick.
At one point she was challenged by one elusive pea and this lead to obvious frustration. She stabbed at it using her little and somewhat uncooperative fingers yielding little success. Then suddenly (as if to sneak up on it) she lunged at the bowl, nearly knocked me backwards and fell face first into the peas. No one was hurt, no tears fell and another peatastrophe was averted. She got up, ate her pea and resumed her redecorating challenge.Damn that scale for turning me into a veggie sherpa. I'm thinking fishing weights are next on the menu.
* my apologies to Paul Gallico et al.
9 comments:
Love the image of the veggie sherpa!
ah, don't worry about the wee bumper (so cute!) - did she weight 16.5 lbs? because that's what bee weighed at 1 year, and i can tell you, it was about 10 lbs less than most of her friends the same age.
but, it was like that at 4 months, 6 months and 9 months too. me and chris sound like you guys - i am a midget, and chris is tall and thin. like my mom says - you don't get great danes from daschunds.
exactly what penelopeto said!!! As you've read on my blog, food is a tricky thing with us.
Us too at Samantha's one year appt, the dr has told us to come in a little more earlier to see how her weight is going....the thing is she's seen me and my husband, we're both small. Does she think we're going to produce an amazon baby?
Ahh enough rambling. You're doing great; she'll eat when she's ready!!!! Don't worry!
Enh, babies are self-regulating. They're not like cats and teenagers who will reject food when hungry, just on principle.
Veggie Sherpa. LOL.
Oh the Pea dance. We did that one too. But Kittenpie is right ... she'll eat when she is hungry.
And having met sweet Bumper in the flesh she strikes me as a healthy baby girl to me. Not malnourished at all :)
Wow, it's so hard when they don't eat. I try not to worry about it. The monkey has her days when she barely eats anything. I try to just give her what she won't refuse -- usually something cold and liquid to soothe her likely aching teeth...usually apple juice (half juice half water). We can't force feed them...Have you tried grapes? They're calorie and nutrient dense. My monkey can't get enough of them. And, cheese....Lasagna also worked well for me. Cheeeesy lasagna with turkey meet. Gave her a bit of each food group. I also give her organic ice cream when I'm really desperate....I let it melt for a bit so it goes down easy: it's highly caloric and dairy....I hope that helps.... Don't worry. As my doc says, as long as she LOOKS GOOD, LOOKS HEALTHY, nothing to worry about.
And, judging from the pictures, your daughter looks so wonderful, healthy, perfect! :)
I feel your pain, says the mother of the 5th percentile in weight. They suggested to me to get him to eat fattier things like yogurt, cheese, dark meat instead of breast. You might want to try that if you can keep her still long enough.
She's got great hair though. That's gotta count for something
The every wise Mom-101 commented on my last post that babies should be regarded as snakes: some days, they will eat an entire mouse, whole, and others, they will eat nothing at all. Such is the way of the snake, and, presumably the baby.
Make of that what you will.
Your little sweet pea is ideal in every way. Glad she she bounces back so well!
Strawberry loves frozen peas. She went through a green phase where she only wanted green food.
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