Food, weight, and booties

We took Reece for his 5-year checkup recently and discovered that he hadn't gained any weight since his last visit in May of 2009. Now, when your child is in the 90th percentile, nobody really notices this kind of thing or gets concerned about it. However, when he is in the 6th percentile for height and weight, red flags start flapping in the wind. We're used to people being concerned with our boys' development, or at least with monitoring it, and we've chosen doctors for them who understand the genetic aspect and don't get too worked up. But when something like this happens, they (and we) still want to cover all the possibilities to make sure that nothing is going on.

So Reece has had an X-ray of his wrist to determine his bone age (fine) and been seen by a pediatric gastroenterologist (actually 2 - one was in training), and we met with a dietitian. First of all, they were reassured by the fact that Reece's weight to height ratio is still right on his growth curve and even think that the previous weight (when it did seem like he'd made a rather large jump) was inaccurate. And then they checked him out and talked with him and said he seems to be one of the healthiest kids they've seen. The following video seems to support this view:

But we're still doing some things to make sure that nothing strange is going on, so he has to have his blood drawn (I will no doubt be the lucky one to hold him down) and we're keeping a 3-day food diary for him that started yesterday. The day that we have Gymboree right after work/school and therefore sometimes get take-out to make life easier. Which is what we did yesterday, before I realized I was going to have to write down that he had half a cheeseburger (we forgot to ask for ketchup only so he didn't really like it), fries (Wendy's only other option is Mandarin oranges which the kids don't like - at McD's and BK we actually do usually get the apples or yogurt), and a kiddie Frosty (we had a free coupon). And 1% milk, when he's supposed to be having 2% at least. I will not be awarded the Mom-of-the-Year award this week, I'm afraid.

In the midst of all this, Greyson has managed to really fill out and is now on the upper end of the growth curve for weight, so we've been focusing on working with him to make healthy choices and have cut back for all of us on our fat and caloric intake. Which may have inadvertently kept Reece from calories he needs. Until we get the results of his food intake back we won't know for sure, and if it turns out he's not eating enough we're just going to add Carnation Instant Breakfast mix to his milks and that will add all kinds of goodness (and some processed food not-so-goodness) to his diet. In the meantime, I'm finding myself offering Reece food any chance I get and telling Greyson no almost every time he asks for anything beyond the main meals. And buying full-fat and fat-free versions of everything that has those choices. Gah!

I really believe that the result of all the testing will be that he's fine and we just need to monitor more carefully what he actually eats (and maybe give him more snack opportunities between meals). And in the meantime I get some chances to spend time with just him (even if it is holding him down for needles).