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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Can You Envy Your Own Child?

My dream has always been to be one of those people who can eat whatever they want and yet still be thin. Hmm...more specifically thin without having to exercise or say, just for an example of course, do triathlons. You know those people I'm talking about; the ones who've never been on a diet in their whole life. They can eat whatever they want and not worry about it. In fact because they can eat whatever they want a lot of times they tend to not eat sweets very often because it's no big deal to them. How irritating! We have quite a few people in our family like this. Sadly neither the Big Giraffe nor I possess these magical metabolisms.

My kids consume a large amount of food. Sometimes I think about what they're going to be like as teenagers and I feel panicky. Images of second mortgages to pay for warehouse quantities of food pop into my mind. Whenever we're around people who don't see them on a regular basis, they comment on how much the kids eat. A box of frozen multigrain waffles lasts two days in our family; sometimes three if we're lucky and no, the Big Giraffe and I don't eat waffles. My kids eat pretty healthy, but they have their share of sweets as well. I let them pick out a dessert pretty much every day (a couple cookies, a Popsicle, a package of fruit snacks, etc.) They can have it whenever they want it; it's their choice even if that means at breakfast.

My older son is above average height but below average weight. He's on the thin side, but there's no cause for concern and if anything the pediatrician said it was a good thing. The pediatrician just said to keep doing what we've been doing. He eats pretty much anything and loves salad. The only thing he doesn't like is milk and he's not a huge fan of ice cream. He likes it but would much prefer a Popsicle just like how he would prefer fruit snacks to cookies or candy. Yeah, that's what I mean about those thin people who can eat anything. Yes, he does eat a lot but a Popsicle is much lower on calories not to mention fat than a cookie.

I had been concerned about my younger son for a while. His weight was low at his 18 month checkup, but the pediatrician said it wasn't a cause for concern yet; we would just keep an eye on it. Today he had his 2 year appointment. He's grown three inches but has gained less than a pound. The doctor put him on a high calorie diet. Visions of Oreo cookies and cake immediately filled my mind. Cake every evening! Oh wait, cake a la mode every evening! There were two problems though. The first and biggest being that it was YS not me that was put on a high calorie diet. The second problem is that you want to increase the calories in the amount of food the child is already eating and not increase the amount of food. That way you're not teaching your child to overeat and as the doctor said you can't make kids eat anything they don't want to eat anyhow.

He's back on whole milk but this time I need to add powdered whole milk to it. He is supposed to eat whole milk cheeses and yogurts. I have a whole list of high fat foods for him. They are foods like peanut butter, granola, Carnation Instant Breakfast, tuna in oil etc. He also gets to have one "special" milkshake a day. This is where I want to pause and ask the following question: Can you envy your own child?

Special Milkshake* recipe:

3/4 cup High Protein Milk (1 cup whole milk + 4 Tbsp dry milk powder)
1 cup ice cream
1/4 cup Half and Half
2 Tbsp. chocolate syrup

A. Elliot's Lesson She's Really Hoping She Follows: Don't eat your kid's food no matter how tempting it is.

*There are multiple versions of the milkshakes using fruit syrup, sherbet etc.

** He has another appointment in two months where he will have a weight check. There are a few possibilities for why he's having difficulty gaining weight: 1) Magical metabolism combined with the fact that my kids play outside or at the Y most days of the week. 2)Thyroid problem which does run in our family 3)Enlarged adenoids. Apparently in some kids it can make it harder to breathe which can in turn cause them to burn a lot more calories.

Labels: Child Health and Personal Care, Food (Solid)

posted by Alex Elliot @ 3:25 PM 6 comments

6 Comments:

At 6/25/2008 7:58 PM, soccer mom in denial said…

So not fair is it? And I envy my daughter's clothes choices that everyone thinks is adorable. On me, I would be hospitalized.
At 6/25/2008 8:10 PM, Heather said…

Well, I weighed next to nothing all through high school. Now I'm overweight...so go figure.
At 6/26/2008 6:21 AM, Marinka said…

Don't worry, once your sons go through menopause the pounds will pile on! Oh.
At 6/26/2008 7:29 AM, Amy said…

The whole metabolism thing drives me CRAZY. My SIL tried to give me a lesson on nutrition once. My SIL, who is 95 pounds soaking wet and made it to a whopping 120 pounds when pregnant. I said to her, "You don't understand, because you could eat whatever you want and not exercise and you would still look exactly the same!"

She tried to tell me she could let herself go, but I pointed out that I LIVE with her genes letting himself go, and no, he does not gain weight. EVER. Regardless of whether or not he exercises or whether or not he eats cheesecake seven times a day. It doesn't happen.

Perhaps she hasn't seen every single person in her family that looks exactly like her, I don't know.

Me, I finish a half marathon training series only to still not lose weight. ArG!!! I hate my stupid metabolism!
At 6/27/2008 4:59 PM, Suzanne said…

I think I've been consuming the foods on OS's diet lately. Ooops.
At 6/29/2008 7:21 AM, Ashley Winters said…

Having a tiny girl at home who only weighs 33 pounds at age 5, I like the idea of having a special shake every day. Where did you find the protein powder?

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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