How to make a child fat...

Recently Maggie's dietician chewed me out over the phone because Maggie hadn't gained weight in November and December. (Yes, she berated me and left me in sobbing tears-not kidding).

This person had obviously lumped me into the group of neglectful moms she must see everyday at Children's Hospital. "I am not a bad mom," I wanted to say. "Maggie has had a cold, cough, stomach virus, surgery, new g-button (which got infected) in that time period and any time she's sick it makes her reflux/vomiting return. Plus she started walking and burning more calories." But this person didn't care. Her job is to monitor maggie's weight gain and I obviously failed in her book.

Why is it that American children are getting more and more obese yet my child can't just get a sliver of fat on her body? It's so frustrating that Maggie probably gets more calories a day than most finicky two year olds with the homemade formula I make. And yet she's still so skinny!

Then it hit me: Maggie gets no junk or processed food like most American children. No cookies, crackers, Popsicles, ice cream, fruit snacks- none of that stuff that has zero nutritional value, but plenty of calories. Even the healthiest parents still let their kids have a treat here or there, right?

So perhaps Maggie is too healthy. The good fats like olive oil and avocados are just not doing the job for her. She can't have dairy unfortunately. And we can't just increase the amount of existing formula she receives because she will throw up (we've tried and I'm tired of having green goo all over my clothes, furniture, hair, dog, and so on). So I'm thinking I need to resort to adding some other low volume, high calorie food: The Twinkie. That's 150 calories of pure processed food. If anyone has a good reason for me not trying this, please feel free to email me...hopefully my instincts are right on this, too.






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