Skinny Sweetie

We had Lucia’s one-year checkup on Wednesday, and her small size is finally a problem—or, rather, it finally elicited a concerned reaction. She’s been around the 25th percentile for weight ever since birth—growing steadily—but between her last checkup at ten months and this visit, she gained nothing. I was instructed to start weaning her, get more calories into her, and come back in five weeks for a weigh-in—and if she showed no progress we’d have to see a GI specialist.

I do not think anything is wrong with Lucia’s GI system, mainly because when we saw the doctor at ten months, he told me not to give her anymore cheese or yogurt until her first birthday. She’d been greatly enjoying both things, and I’m hoping re-introducing them (plus cow’s milk) will get her back on track. Also, since that last appointment, Lucia has turned into a real playground-lover, traipsing around the equipment without a pause every single day. So not enough calories plus burning more calories—it seems to make sense that we may have had a temporary drop-off in weight.

I have five weeks to get her to show some weight gain, and I’m going all-out: eggs scrambled with cheese and whole milk with sausage links for breakfast, meatballs in cream sauce, mac and cheese, yogurt, tons of avocado pieces, and everything drizzled or dipped in olive oil. Mmmm, fat. I’ve started introducing milk, and she’s not crazy about it yet, but she doesn’t reject it outright, either, so I’m feeling positive about it. And I’ve taken a baby step toward weaning: I’ve cut out the first-thing-in-the-morning nursing so she’s hungry for a big breakfast.

I have no doubt that Lucia is going to be a skinny string bean just as I was. But she needs to gain some weight. Here’s to the start of a Month of Fat.

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