Plan of Attack

Here's our game plan to help Olivia gain some weight. We'll try this for a month until we see the dr again and find out if it's making any difference. Also if she's still not gaining well by then, I'm going to ask for a referral to a pediatrician.
1. cereal in the morning with added yogurt
2. Enfagrow (for awhile at least until she's more into eating)
3. Balkan style yogurt added to cereal at other meals (6%mf)
4. Instead of spoon feeding we're teaching her to spoon feed herself and letting her try it out.
5. As much snacking as she'll do
6. keeping a food diary to show the dr

Keep us in your prayers please!

Olivia's 1 year checkup

Well my little girl is indeed that, little. She has fallen behind in her growth and is now only at the 10th percentile for weight. This is a drop of two curves from her previous appointment where she was in the 50th percentile. As of today, she only weighs 18lbs 8oz. I was sure she weighed more than that after getting nearly 20 pounds when weighing her on several different home scales but I know the scale at the doctors office is more accurate...or at least I would hope so. She is now 28.5 inches tall as well. The dr was concerned with this drop in growth, as am I now. She said that there is a risk for failure to thrive (I didn't know that was possible this late after birth) as well as iron deficiency. Now I was pretty sure we were ok on iron because her cereal gives her 100% of her daily needs for it. I'm going to purchase a multivitamin as well, although they are very expensive. She talked about trying to get her to eat more dairy with higher fats, that we can try. But grinding up her meat again...I don't think Olivia will go for that. She wasn't eating pureed foods well in Calgary so I don't think she will eat them now. She has 2 teeth with 3 more coming in, I would think chewing would be a priority for her. The dr also said she should be drinking 3 cups of milk a day. Three cups? I can barely get 1 into her. It's disappointing to find out that your child isn't growing well and that it's basically your fault. But we will strive to fatten this little girl up because we want her to be as healthy as possible. She's otherwise just fine. She plays well, sleeps well and is really smart. She understands tons of words and will complete simple tasks when you ask her to. She is very strong willed and has a great personality. Now all she needs is some meat on her bones.

Rubber Ducky Birthday Party

Today I hosted Olivia's first birthday party. It was supposed to be an outdoor pool party with a rubber ducky theme because I figured August would be summer in Kapuskasing. Unfortunately I was wrong and it's more like fall out there right now. However we had a blast inside instead. We moved the furniture around and set up Olivia's water table and duck pond in the bathroom. We used a tablecloth on the floor as a picnic area for the girls to sit and also had a coloration station for them to colour pictures of rubber duckies and draw whatever they would like. I think they had the most fun playing with the water table in the bathroom as most of them came back out soaked. We barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers and served watermelon, cookies in the shape of ducks, cream cheese and jam tortilla pinwheels, sherbet punch, and of course the cake! After eating the girls went fishing for their rubber duckies in the bathtub and received prizes that corresponded to the duck they caught. Then it was time for presents which were enjoyed by all. Olivia had help from her friends opening her gifts and was too distracted by the awesome presents to finish opening all of them. Olivia looked a little weirded out by the cake and people singing happy birthday to her yet again (we did this all last week on her actual birthday) but she really enjoyed cramming cake into her mouth and smearing it on her outfit. The girls played with the balloons for a bit, received a loot bag and then went home happy and full of good food. I was so relieved that everything went so well and I was especially happy that my little girl had a good time. I've never seen her eat so much! I think she knew it was a special occassion. We had 5 party guests ranging from 5 months to 4 years and each had fun in her own way I think. It really wasn't as stressful as I thought it might have been even though the cake did give me a little trouble. I'm glad it's over though. Now I have to worry about next year...I'm thinking Backyardigans theme?