I've spent a lot of time over the past 6 years watching my weight, losing weight, etc. With the news full of stories about childhood obesity, I work hard to ensure that Sam eats balanced meals and gets plenty of time for being active. Balanced meals can be hard with a toddler. He likes the strangest foods - anything from Indian cuisine, legumes (loves black beans, lima beans, kidney beans, etc), hummus, and of course is a big chocolate lover. However, he only eats one big meal every few days which can be very frustrating. When he's done - he says "done, down!" and refuses to eat any more and wants to get down from the highchair. He has plenty of energy so I figured that he's getting enough of what he needs, right?
Wrong. At the doctor this week, we found out that over the past 3 months he has grown much taller - he grew 2.5 inches which is great (he's now 34.5 inches). He is in the 85th percentile for height. However, he had actually LOST 4 ounces over the last 3 months. Granted, this is not much weight - but he shouldn't be losing weight. He should be gaining at least a pound or two during this time period. He's down to the 14th percentile for weight.
Obviously, he does not get his tall, skinny body from me - this clearly comes from his 6'4" lanky daddy. So, the genes for a tall, thin boy are clearly there. Plus he's become much more active in the last 3 months, he rarely walks any more...he prefers to run full-speed to anywhere he wants to go. So, we're going to try to offer him more frequent meals every 2 hours and work on coaxing him to eat a bit more. I've begun to get creative and mixed spinach into some chocolate pudding the other day. I know it sounds disgusting, but he ate it!
If anyone has any suggestions on how to get him to eat more, we're open to all ideas. The problem is not that he's a picky eater (although he doesn't really like vegetables, but what toddler does). He just eats like 2-3 bites of something and then he's done! Argh. Always feels like it's something....
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