Feeding Jane

Feeding Jane has been an interesting experience over the past four to five months. 

Before we moved in June I took Jane in to our pediatrician one last time. She was three months old and 13 pounds and some ounces. With the move and all that fun, when I finally got around to setting up an appointment for her at seven months, I thought was a month late for her six month visit.  It turned out that I was three months late for her four month visit!  And she had, of course, not gotten her four month shots.

The big deal at this seven month visit was that Jane had only gone up in weight about one pound.  She had gone from 70th + percentile to barely on the chart.  I had, by then, started drinking an herbal tea with fenugreek in it (called Mother's Milk - it is actually quite good) that was supposed to help with my milk supply.  I really feel like it has helped and I have continued to drink it so I can keep nursing.  The pediatrician was worried to see such a drastic change in weight.  Of course, having moved and using a different scale could make a bit of a difference, so we weren't needing to do anything drastic.  Just watch for a little bit.  Meanwhile, the doc suggested doing anything to up her calories: extra feedings, start solids with a vengeance, add butter to everything, etc.  

Honestly, she lost me at butter.  While I know it is important that this little girl gain weight, I am not interested in adding milk fat to her diet.  Based on what we have read (Eat to Live and Disease-proof Your Child) we have decided to avoid dairy as long as we can.  Spencer keeps assuring me that as long as Jane is meeting developmental milestones, we do not have anything to worry about.

What I keep thinking about is how big Janie was at birth: 9 pounds 5 ounces.  She was a big baby.  Now, she is a little, little girl.  I feel like there has to be some drastic drop when she had so much extra at birth and she obviously, given her body type, wasn't going to sustain that.  

Jane is doing really well.  When eating pureed foods she got up to eating about a full pound each day (half a pound twice a day).  She loved peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  She moved on to table foods quite a while ago and still eats plenty.  I think her favorite, though, is my bread.  She could keep eating that forever!