So, guess what. Gaines eats now. We've only been stressing about this for how long now? All of a sudden, he acts like he's been eating his whole life.
Earlier this week we decided to cut back from four 195 cc bottles to three 240 cc bottles (and yes, we still measure his bottles in ccs...a nod to the NICU days) and have tried to make up the missing calories with real food. The nutritionist/pulmonologist want him having so many calories a day and since his pediaure is the best way to get them (just a lot of calories in them) they've been pushing those but they keep him from wanting to eat real food which the pediatrician/therapists/myself think he needs to be eating. Basically we kept him so full of pediasure that he never got hungry. So far, I think he's making up more than enough calories with this new plan and it has made life so much more enjoyable.
Now, I do feel like I'm setting him up to have terrible eating habits later in life because we feed him all this junk food (higher calories than the healthy stuff) but whatever it takes to fatten him up. Cheese puffs are the current favorite...and side note, I forgot how delicious they are. He also eats these pound cake muffins that I found, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, crackers with butter, carrots cooked in butter and sugar, cookies, brownies, french fries, peaches (that's healthy), etc. If any of you have any ideas of foods that are high calorie and easy for a 1 year old to eat, please, send them my way. I think peanut butter would be good...I just don't know that he's ready for that yet.
The hard part is feeding Gaines the high calorie stuff and not feeding it to Reed. Or trying to cook fattening things for Gaines that won't fatten up the rest of us. He doesn't eat huge quantities so it doesn't make since to make a whole chicken and rice casserole for just him...which means we will all be eating chicken and rice casserole tomorrow night...and I will be going on a run...and I guess the Gaines will get all the leftovers...for the rest of the week. I've just been trying to cook a little lighter now that its summer.
I'm sorry this post is so random. I'm just typing.
This morning Reed gave Beau a card that he made him at school. In the card was a picture of Reed wearing a maroon t-shirt and a cowboy hat. I asked the teacher what that was about and she said they let all the kids choose from the play clothes in the "home-living" center and told them to choose something their dad would wear...or something like that. Now...I've known Beau a good 7 years now and I have NEVER seen him even think about wearing a cowboy hat but apparently, that's how Reed pictures him. Beau looked at me this morning and said, "What does he think I do?" It was all pretty funny. I love Beau but he's not exactly the rugged cowboy type. Later in the morning Beau asked Reed what daddy's job was and Reed thought for a minute and said, "Cutting the grass". I'm trying to teach him to say that daddy is a businessman. I think that's hilarious for some reason.
All in all we've had a good day and a good week. Gaines eating makes life so much easier. Less bottle fighting and less stressing because he won't eat "real" food. Next step...sippy cup.
That's all I've got for now.
Love to all,
Brittany
10 comments:
Alex was in need of "fattening up" when he was around the same age as Gaines. His favorites were honey buns and powdered donuts. Worked like a CHARM. And, yes, it was hard not to allow Thomas to eat them too. Can't remember how I handled that.
Cutting the grass? That's SO funny!!! Glad to hear that Gaines is doing so much better on the eating front.
YEA for eating fatty foods!! And girl, I've got a 2 year old with NO health problems and I feed him crap like that sometimes! Right now, packing on the pounds is what's MOST important! hahaha
YEA for progress!
Hi there! I'm a friendly stranger who has been reading since the beginning of the blog. It has been such a blessing to read of your journey with your family and with the Lord.
As far as fattening foods, how about mashed potatoes with butter and/or sour cream? I had a friend who needed to fatten up her little guy and it seems like she fed him fatty mashed potatoes all the time. I also make a "hamburger pie" (basically like a shepherd's pie) that has browned ground beef & onions mixed with canned green beans & condensed tomato soup, in a 9x13 casserole dish topped with mashed potatoes, baked for 25 minutes, then topped with grated cheese and baked for 5 minutes more. My whole family (3 little kids & hubby and me) likes it. It's probably pretty fatty. :)
So glad he's eating!!
bekah
WAHOO!! Back to posting! And a really funny one. I guess Beau wears the cowboy hat when he's mowing to keep the sun off his face, you should really think about bringing Brick to the wedding, he'd love it. So is Beau wearing pants in the picture or does Brick just assume that no one wears pants? Glad you're back!
As for things for Garth Brooks to eat, beer has always packed on the pounds, but you'd probably get sent to the loony bin for that one, doughnuts are good, cupcakes, lasagna.
Gah, I feel your pain. It seems like for all the work I put in to getting my almost three year old (former 26 weeker) on the growth chart, the only person who keeps the weight on is me! :) She's supposedly lactose intollerlant and allergic to peanuts and if I have to sit through on more nutritionist telling me to feed her peanut butter and foods with heavy cream I am going to scream. Now she's on Coumadin for her mechanical heart valve so most oils, even olive oil are out. We do good old fashion butter, lots of it (I know it's dairy) slathered on things when we can. Those Lofthouse cookies are attrociously fatty as well. But I find them hard to resist. Occasionally I'll make her pudding with coconut milk. It's far cheaper than buying the coconut milk ice cream. Check the labels though on the canned coconut milk and make sure you aren't getting the low fat stuff. The "good stuff" has like 14 grams of fat in a 1/4 cup. I keep thinking we are setting her up for terrible eating habits in the future. She asks for "hah br and fries" (hamburger and fries) and now apple pies on a daily basis. I won't tell you how many times a week I hit the drive thru because she will consistently eat far more In & Out, Checkers or even Mickey D's if I put that on her plate than anything else I can make from scratch at home. Now that the baby is on table foods I'm frustrated making a different set of meals. But at least in our case, it's the older child getting the "fun and special yummy foods" so it's a little easier. My baby is in the 75th percentaile and wears the same size shorts as her sister who is 22 months older.
Know that you are not alone in your struggle. I enjoyed the tips from your other readers. I guess I'll pick up some donuts tomorrow- she LOVES Dunkin Donuts chocolate glazed Munchkins!
Oh and I love that you still measure things in cc's. Glad to know we're not the only odd ones :)
I agree---with pureed vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes, you could make healthy version for you guys and then set aside some to mix with butter, sugar (for the sweet potatoes), etc., for Gaines. That way, Reed will get to have some and it will be healthy. You should also look into 'healthy' fats like avocados...I think the 'sneaky chef' adds pureed avocado to chocolate pudding. Reed can enjoy sugar-free chocolate pudding and then you can make a more fattening version for Gaines. Yes, this sounds like a lot of effort, but in the end, it might prevent any sibling disputes/jealousies. Here is the sneaky chef's website http://www.thesneakychef.com/tip_of_the_week.php
Oatmeal cream pies, raisins (he may not be able to eat those yet), yogurt--the not light kind, carnation instant breakfast added to milk, cheese grits, scrambled eggs, sausage (porter loves it), ground beef (we do tacos and just give porter the meat and cheese, um..... That's all I can think of right now. Oh, ice cream!!!! Porter is still really skinny and goes through ups and downs with eating. I think we finally broke the 23lb mark ( at least on our scales at home) and he is 19 months. We are in the less than 10th percentile, and I think we are actually close to 3rd percentile. Right now he is eating, so I just stuff it in him. Oh, and you can add powdered milk to almost anything to add calories. Forgot about that one too.
Hummas is a yummy one, healthy, and great on crackers!
Something really calorie-laden that one of the little ones in our family likes is pot pie. Seriously, look @ the info on one of those boxes sometime.
It's astounding!
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