
Done With Baby Food?
October 13, 2009
A few weeks ago I took Parker in for his 9 month checkup. While he has always been a pound or two smaller than his brother, we had never really worried about his size. Zach is long and lanky, and Parker seemed to have a similar body type. At the 6 month checkup, Parker was in the 36th percentile for weight (65th for height). His weight seemed to be doing a step sort of thing and not really staying on one curve, but there weren’t many plot points to really say that definitively. He seemed to gain quickly, and then level off and then gain quickly again. At 6 months he had leveled off a little, so I expected a bigger gain at his 9 month visit. Instead, he dropped off his curve. He dropped from 36th percentile to 18th! The nurse practitioner suggested that it was probably Parker’s increased activity. He went from being mostly stationary at 6 months to constant motion at 9 months. I hope that she’s right, but there is a little worried mommy part of my brain that can’t stop saying “what if it’s something more?” At this point, we’re just waiting to see how he gains in the next three months. So, we’ve been a little more focused on Parker’s eating habits lately. He’s always seemed to eat fine – 3 meals a day and bottles in between. Finger foods throughout the day as well. So I’ve been trying to convince him to eat a full jar of food (stage 3) at each meal and introducing more table foods than we had been before. Unfortunately, it appears that Parker has recently decided that he is no longer interested in baby food. He’ll eat about 2 bites and then he stops swallowing and letting the food slide out of his mouth. So now we’re trying to come up with foods that don’t come in baby jars but is still chewable and edible for our little guy. And most importantly, making sure that he’s eating nutritious food that helps him grow lots over the next three months!
I have heard that avocado works well…can be cut in cubes for him to eat on his own…and high calorie…and healthy:)