Thursday, February 5, 2009

fats--the good kind

It is no small secret that Reid and I make fat babies. With Grace and Abby we never saw any numbers that weren't in the 90% range (excepting, of course, Grace's head which was in the 130th percentile) --and i LOVED it! I love, love LOVE chubby babies. I always swore that if i had a skinny baby I'd send her back!
Well, I've had to eat my words. At her 2 month appt Eliza's weight was about 60th percentile. I was borderline depressed. I feed her 2-3 times more a day than i fed her sisters--how can she be skinny? And then at her 4 month appt (which happened right before she turned 5 months) she'd dropped to 30th percentile!!!!! How can this be happening to me?!?!?!? What happened to my "magic milk"!?!?! All those years of feeling sorry for moms that didn't have chubby babies have come back to kick me in the butt!!!


Here's skinny lil' Eliza. I know by some standards she ain't skinny, but to me, she looks like a bird when compared to this: my little chunky abby--LOVE this picture of her! makes me giggle every time!

and my chubby Grace
I immediately came home from that Dr.'s visit and started forcing solids into her mouth. She's been showing signs of being ready for a while now, so i was sure it'd be a success. WRONG! She HATED the cereal! Was I wrong? is she not ready? I started to have panic attacks with visions of a picky eater refusing to eat all the crazy veggies and funky whole grains i make my family eat--which, up to this point, i've never had to deal with!
But last night i was reading about baby food, and decided to try what many are claiming to be the "perfect first baby food" because of it's fat, iron and fiber content, not to mention its texture and TASTE--an avocado! Eliza absolutely loved it! I realized today that she was ready for solids, i was just giving her the wrong solids! it was nothing like the first time I fed Abby and Grace cereal, which, even though they liked, 80% of the cereal would come back out with each bite. Eliza was swallowing almost all of the spoonful! And she kicked and squealed cause she wanted more! (Ironically enough, avocados are one of 4 or 5 foods that Grace has never liked) And the best part is that what she didn't eat, I (salted a bit and) got to finish off!
So, now i just need to know how many avocados i'm gonna have to shove down her throat to get some rolls on those skinny little arms!! I think the 5-6 spoonfuls i had today took care of me :)
Note: don't get me wrong, i'm not planning on skipping baby cereals at all--i'm just a bit more optimistic overall about her potential eating habits. And this is just one of a billion experiences i've had that's reminded me that ALL kids are very different, even those from the very same parents!!

10 comments:

merathon said...

and you were depressed by 60%ile? remember me? how i'm pumped that emery is in between the 10th and 25th instead of the 5th like k & b? we've started solids too and she was loving them a week ago. . .now, not so much. we've done applesauce, avocado, refried beans, a carrot soup i made (mistake-- too spicy), and of course, brown rice cereal. i hope she starts liking them more because i am SO ready to be done with the nursing thing!

sad to hear you're going private (because i'm bad about checking those too) but i guess you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

Pink Caboose said...

Avocado. I'm gonna have to see if Hayden will eat those. Good idea!

Melissa Snyder said...

Cute girls! Hope everyone is feeling better.

Nathan said...

30th PERCENTILE. Man, this is a real problem! All Allred adults must be blackmailed by 5-chin baby pictures

SeiterClan said...

Hi Reid & Emily! My mom(Reid's Aunt Katherine) gave me your blogger address & I have been lurking for awhile. :) It has been fun to read about your cute family. I just started our family blog at the beginning of the year so feel free to check it out sometime.

You'll see in my last post about our little girl & how chubby she used to be whereas our littlest boy is little. I took him to the Dr. for his 18 month checkup this week & he almost weighs 23# is the 10th percentile which is better than at his last checkup where he was only on the 5th percentile.

Anyways, just thought you might want to know that at least one lurker is not a stranger!
Love,Jenn

The Ultimate Mama said...

i love that i'm friends with another salt-a-holic.

Adrie Peterson said...

Funny about the avocados, as when I was pregnant with Luke, I could NOT get enough of them! I would eat a whole one for lunch...or whenever I felt like it! Good for you being "in tune" with her needs...I give you an A+!

Yasmine said...

I have skinny babies. Hunter was in the 10th percentile and McKay was in the 15th. There is an upside to it--- I don't worry if I'm causing childhood obesity everytime I make cookies, and skinny babies meet milestones like crawling and walking faster because they don't have so much weight hindering their progress! I used to worry, but the doctor seemed happy about it. He said that kids are getting fatter and so the percentile averages are getting higher and higher. 60th percentile is great!

merathon said...

hmmmmm. . . i have to disagree on the comment about how skinny kids crawl and walk sooner. my little stringbeans have all been late to do those things-- crawling around 9 months and walking at 15 months! i think when they learn to do those things just has mostly to do with the personality of the child, although i do think that chubbier kids tend to learn to sit up sooner because they have a sturdier base to support themselves! just my two cents-- not trying to be a brat!

Amanda said...

30th percentile is nothing. Amelia is now in the 5th on her weight and the 10th on her height. Rosie is actually smaller than Amelia was at that age! Oh well...as long as they have just a touch of fat so that I can pinch them, that's all that matters. And by the way, who wants to eat that nasty boring baby cereal anyway? My babies always love a good avocado (and so do I).