Off the charts

The day after Lillians birthday we went to the doctor for her 12 month checkup. Overall, she is a healthy, happy, sweet baby who is already ahead of the game in terms of many milestones. One of those, it turns out, is her weight. Based on her height, her weight is currently off of the percentile chart.

Our ped is a very reassuring, even-minded doctor who assured me that her own son had a similar growth pattern and that in most cases kids like this even out after they start walking. Even so, we discussed ways to help Lilly stay on that path: fast tracking weaning from the breast, introducing low fat cows milk, avoiding juice altogether and not forcing food when Lilly loses interest.

I had already been doing most of those things. I’d avoided whole milk and juice. Its rare for us to eat any processed or junk foods. Snacks are steamed carrots, fresh fruit, freeze-dried peas (incidentally these are awesome…JiT frequently eats them all) or whole grain crackers. We limit snacking to set times, avoid grazing and encourage lots of activity throughout the day.

Dr. Gould said that I was already a best-case scenario parent for this situation because we’ve introduced and encourage healthy lifelong habits. Even so I am wracked with guilt and shame. How can my child be “overweight”? Its like the ultimate irony…nutritious eating is my THING.

My immediate reaction was to totally obsess. I was a total lunatic… I was announcing our predicament to every mom I knew, assuring them that I was doing everything in my power to correct the “problem.” I was acting insane. We went cold turkey on breast feeding, switched to skim milk and i started portioning her food based on CDC guidelines using precise measurements (did you know that a serving of fruit for a 1 yr old is two Tablespoons??). Of course this rash course of action had me wound up in knots and poor Lilly confused and half starved. Thank God she’s too young to understand or id have probably scarred her for life. The food changes lasted about half a day. We’ve since relaxed…

I realized that I have to trust that Lillian’s adorable little body knows what its doing and that the heathy habits we’re creating are what’s most important. In the meantime I’m trying to stop being a lunatic and be grateful for my healthy, sweet girl who loves hugs, bath time, bubbles and kale 🙂