(no subject)

[rivka]

Alex turned 16 months old this week. This is really a golden time.

She's so charming, happy, funny, cuddly, independent, smart. The incredible restlessness of a couple of months ago - the constant need for entertainment and changing scenery - has settled down. Now she sits on the floor and colors with crayons for long periods of time. She talks to her doggy and her little toy Sesame Street figures. She opens junk mail. She puts her puzzles together and talks about the pieces. She climbs up on the furniture and back down again. She has phone conversations, sometimes on her toy cell phone but more often (and with greater enthusiasm) on ours: "Hi! H'lo! Hi! Phone! [babble babble] Bye!"

She's funny. Saturday at dinner, she wrapped a thin strip of mango around her wrist, grinned at us, and announced, "A watch!" Then she held it up to various incorrect body parts ("Nose!" "Ear!"), laughing and shaking her head to show that she didn't mean it, before popping it in her mouth.

She's more affectionate. When she brings me a book to read, she'll suggest, "Lap." She loves to sit on my lap to color (although that has technical complications), look at books, or watch Blue's Clues. She'll lean in to us and say, "Hug hug," or just throw herself into our arms for a quick cuddle. Toys like doggy are still the most likely to be kissed (closed lips, chin thrust forward, and an emphatic "mmmmmmMMM!"), but sometimes we get kisses as well.

She still just loves to go for walks and play outside. She collects leaves, sticks, and small rocks. She splashes in puddles. She looks up at streetlamps and says, "Tall!" She points at passing cars and announces their color. She wants to investigate every barking dog she hears. And she definitely remembers where dogs have been seen in the past - she knows approximately where to find the bookstore with the amiable collie mix, and the gates that sometimes have dogs behind them.

I've lost count of her vocabulary, but it's well over two hundred words. Her early words were almost all concrete nouns, but now she uses plenty of verbs (hop, jump, walk, drink, sleep, scratch, fly) and adjectives (high, low, tall, hot, cold, loud). She makes adorable errors: she calls umbrellas "rain" and brooms "sweep." She knows just about all the parts of the body and most of the colors (red, green, blue, yellow, purple, pink, black, brown), and she loves to point them out. Two-word phrases are increasingly common: "red truck," "cracker, please," "more milk." She loves to answer questions with "no," regardless of her actual opinion, so we have a lot of conversations like this:

Alex: "Kitty, kitty, kitty!"
Me: "Oh, is there a kitty there?"
Alex: "No."

We had her 15-month well-baby check today, a month late. It was awful - she started crying as soon as we were put in an exam room, and turned purple with hysteria during the exam itself. Her pediatrician and his assistant both agreed that it was just the age, and that pretty much every toddler hates doctors with a passion. Fortunately, this time the exam didn't bring up anything that required further investigation.

Except, possibly, her weight. She didn't gain any weight from 12 to 16 months - she's stayed steady at 21 pounds, which puts her in the 13th percentile for girls her age. Her height, on the other hand, continues to hover right around the 95th percentile. Her doctor wasn't especially alarmed - he pointed out that if she wasn't getting adequate nutrition, she wouldn't be getting taller. But he wants us to make sure to schedule her 18 month visit right at 18 months, so we can continue to monitor her weight. In the meantime, I'm going to try offering more healthy snacks - she's generally been a three meals a day toddler, rather than a grazer, but I think she could probably eat a little more in between meals. (Any suggestions for healthy, high-calorie snacks?)

In general, this is just an amazing time. She went through a hard-to-parent phase a little while back, and I'm sure she'll hit another one soon... but in the meantime, I can hardly contain my overflowing heartful of toddler love.

Comments

[malibrarian.livejournal.com]

Snacks--something from the dairy group--yoghert, cheese might be helpful. And then there's the fat group--don't forget that one! And I remember the days of not wanting to go to the doctor's! It passes and it will become fun and amusing again.

Glad to hear that Alex is doing so well.

[eeyorerin]

Peanut butter and apples or celery? Cheese? (Not Velveeta! ;) Fruit leather? (Not the fruit roll-ups, since those are mostly corn syrup and red dye -- the dried fruit strips that they sell at camping stores.) I suppose there are those protein drinks for little ones, but they always look so icky.

She is lovely.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Cheese was my first thought, too, if dairy isn't a problem. "Apple sunshine" was one of my favorite snacks when I was small -- a glob a of PB in the middle of a plate, surrounded by apple slices, like the rays of the sun. Another was torn up bread in milk, but that's excessively messy unless she has better spoon control that most kids that age.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I used to have sliced bananas in a bowl with milk and sugar, but I don't think Alex has the spoon skills to handle that. She can self-feed with a spoon, but nothing as runny as milk.

We're avoiding peanut butter until she's three, because of a strong family history of food allergies.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Almond or cashew butter are also very rich in calories and fat, and you can spread it on celery sticks or apple slices. I know tree nuts are something of an allergy risk, but not such a horrible risk as peanuts, so some people only avoid them for the first year. If your family history inclues nut allergies, or you have some other reason to avoid nuts for longer, this might not be an option for you.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Alas, I myself am dreadfully allergic to almonds. (Well, not dreadfully, in the way that dreadful peanut allergies can't even tolerate being in the same room as peanuts, but still.)

Ironically, I can eat peanuts. But no nuts of any kind for the Little Plum.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Too bad about the nuts. Is coconut safe? Can you mix dried coconut with her porridge? (Obviously, you can, in the sense that it would still be porridge. But will she like it and not be allergic to it?) You mentioned having trouble finding good avocados a lot of the time. Around here, there are only good avocados in the regular stores occasionally, but there is usually a pretty good guacamole in the Trader Joe's. They say you can freeze it, but I haven't thawed it yet, so you can regard it with appropriate suspicion.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Alternative to milk: sour cream. I loved (and probably do still love, but haven't had it in years) sliced bananas or strawberries (you're allergic to strawberries, though, aren't you?) with sour cream and sugar. Especially brown sugar for the bananas.


On a related note, when you write about Alex, who is not yet two, saying "bye bye" to inanimate objects, I find it cute and commendable. When I am traveling with a 50-year-old woman who waves and says goodbye to the conference hotel, I find that it is neither.

Context is everything.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see this happening in the time-dilated way I see it, at one or sometimes two week intervals. There's always some new development.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

My daughter and my middle son both ate very little as small children (and often still do, at the ages of seven and nine), but both of them are incredibly healthy. I used to worry when I could see my daughter's ribs, but I've come to accept it as normal for her; she's unusually tall for her age, too, and has been practically since birth. At age 3, she weighed 26 lbs; I don't recall what it was at 16 months, but I don't think it can have been much more than 21.

As for snacks, protein is less likely to distort her hunger perception than sugar, and she's a bit young for large quantities of complex carbs. I'd probably try fingers of cheese. Avocado might also be worth a try, though it's messier. I don't recall whether or not you've mentioned a history of allergies, I'm afraid, but if not, you could also try non-peanut nut butter on crackers or white bread. And when I was a kid, one of my favourite snacks was tinned sardines on white toast.

Does Alex tell you when she's hungry? If so, then in your place I'd probably just trust her to regulate her own intake as far as the timings of meals and snacks are concerned, but I'd make sure always to have some high-energy snacks on hand, so that she could always have them if she wanted to. Since she's growing (and in that regard, I've noticed that my kids always tend to either grow or put on weight, but never both at the same time) and has energy for jumping in puddles etc, it seems very unlikely there's anything wrong. If she doesn't tell you when she's hungry, I'd focus on encouraging her to do that by asking her from time to time (but I'd try to avoid any implication that "no" is the wrong answer). I think training kids to respect the link between eating and hunger is one of the most important gifts a parent can give them - there's so much social pressure not to, in both directions ("Oh, have another slice of birthday cake!" "You too can drop a dress size in 10 days!")

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She does let us know that she's hungry - usually by asking for crackers, by which she means graham crackers (slightly sweet, crisp biscuits). I'm thinking that I might try responding to her requests for crackers by offering something a little more substantial - cheese, yogurt, etc.

Avocados are a good idea, although we seem to have a hard time getting good ones here. But there's a nice, nutrient-dense food that's high in the good kinds of fat. I suppose she might like black olives, too - they fit the same set of criteria.

Strong family history of food allergies, unfortunately, so I don't want to introduce any kind of nut butter. I've heard that some people's kids like soy butter - we might try that, I suppose.

We don't ever pressure her to eat or insist that she have "one more bite." The most I'll do is suggest that she try something. I have been trying to follow the maxim that we decide what to offer and when, and she decides what to eat and how much, but it's a little hard to keep steady on that course when I can count her ribs and vertebrae, you know?

[nodakwriter.livejournal.com]

There is also sunbutter (www.sunbutter.com) which is not made from nuts at all, but sunflower seeds. The creators decided to locate their plant in North Dakota because that allowed them to make extra sure there was no nut contamination of the product.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

it's a little hard to keep steady on that course when I can count her ribs and vertebrae, you know?

Yes, I really do :-)

I think the idea of offering her cheese etc. when she asks for crackers is a good one. If you say something like "Would you like some cheese with your crackers?", then she gets both the affirmation of her choices and the encouragement to branch out a little.

[(Anonymous)]

That's about what I was thinking--putting high fat/protein stuff like cheese or meat (you all are meat-eaters, right? If not then soy meat), hummus on crackers, which she already eats and likes, might do the trick. As a kid I would put butter on graham crackers, which is certainly high-calorie.

I was a skinny little thing growing up, and my mom would always put as much scrambled egg and cut up hot dogs into me as she could manage. Although you need to prepare both, they're also on the very low end of the food-prep scale.

[tchemgrrl.livejournal.com]

Whoops, sorry, hadn't signed in. I'm the anonymous person above.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Oatcakes are high-calorie, nutritious, and yummy! You need quite a lot of fat to bind the oats, that's why.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

What, exactly, are oatcakes? Like pancakes made with oatmeal?

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Oat cakes a tradtionally a scottish thing which I love. They are similar to what I think you guys call Johnny cakes? Anyhows...here is the Wiki link....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatcake . I'm 26 and 2 oat cakes of a normal size generally fills me up - and when I'm in full training mode I eat ALOT!.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I can second that recommendation. Depending on how they're made, they can range from being tasty on their own, to being subtly flavored, but very nutritious biscuits (kind of a cross between the US and UK, biscuit-wise, in fact... at least, according to the recipes I've used). I bet you could make a recipe with a little dried fruit mixed in, as well.

Speaking of breadlike things, I've taken a liking to Cornell bread, which is bread made with unbleached white flour (I actually use whole wheat, which, as you'll see, is a bit of gilding the lily, nutrition-wise), and in the bottom of every measuring cup, add a tablespoon each of soy flour and dry milk, and a teaspoon of wheat germ, before filling it with flour.

It's got a better protein profile, more minerals, and more vitamins than ordinary bread. Tastewise, I think it tastes different from ordinary bread, but it's like switching from white to whole wheat... at first, you notice it because it's different. Then, you stop noticing it because you get used to it.

One warning: if you leave a somewhat under-risen loaf of it out on your counter, figuring it'll just get a bit stale, and, hey, stale bread toasts just fine, you can end up with a rock that you'd need to soak in water before throwing out for the birds. And you have to throw it out for the birds (or throw it away) because you'd be afraid of using the very good knives that have developed a taste for human flesh on it, because it becomes that hard to cut, and, well, those knives have that taste for human flesh, and...

Okay, you asked for food hints, not strange trivia that sounds like something out of a Stephen King short story. I'll stop now.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

There's also the related world's easiest oatcake thing, which we call Jo-made biscuits -- heat oven to 180/350/5, in a saucepan melt 3 ounces of butter/marge with one tablespoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, then in a bowl dump 3 ounces of rolled oats, 3 ounces of flour and 2 ounces of sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, then put the wet stuff into the dry stuff, flatten onto a baking tray, bake for 20 minutes and cut up into squares while hot. They keep well if you don't eat them, they make a good snack, and they're just sweet enough.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Here are two recipes:
Recipe 1 (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usrecipes/oatcakes/)
Recipe 2 (http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/recipes_result.asp?name=scottishoatcakes)

They are more like very oaty biscuits. Ruth had loads of these when we were keeping her off gluten. They are extremely yummy. I have a gluten free recipe for these - must dig it out at home ...

[windsea.livejournal.com]

Be careful -- I remember when Le Son was that age! He was so adorable -- and that's how we wound up with La Daughter, as we thought WOW it'd be nice to have another of these ;-)

I'm just sayin' ;-)

Not that I regret having two -- but it's interesting biological timing that they're Just So Marvellous at a time that spaces them 2 and a bit years apart ;-), that halcyon period between helpless baby and Terrible mid-late Two! With a baby with colic, combined with a short-tempered two-year old, I rather felt like Evolutionary Biology was chortling "SUCKER!" at me :-)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Be careful -- I remember when Le Son was that age! He was so adorable -- and that's how we wound up with La Daughter, as we thought WOW it'd be nice to have another of these ;-)

Sudden unemployment does a great deal to quell those urges. ;-)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

My mom liked babies, thus her first four kids came within three and a half years, with no twins.

Also, she was Catholic, and really liked sex.

2-year spacing hit my family also

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

My older half-siblings were all 2 years apart. My 2 brothers and I are also 2 years apart.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

She's fabulous, but you knew that already. Her energy levels and cheerfulness suggest she is getting plenty of nourishment. My kids would do it in turns, grow taller then fill out then grow taller, lather rinse repeat.

String cheese? Pulling it apart would give her more finger time.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

My kids would do it in turns, grow taller then fill out then grow taller, lather rinse repeat.

I'd feel much better if we ever saw a filling-out stage in the middle! But she's gone from being 70th percentile for weight at 9 months, to 13th percentile now. She's got the "growing taller" part down fine, but she doesn't seem to put on weight to prepare for the growth spurts.

Although, I agree, her cheerful energeticness suggests that there can't be too much of a problem.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

She's sweet. Cool, eh?

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

High-calorie snacks? Hmmm, raisins, nuts (unsalted), yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, granola bars. Peanut butter on crackers? Or the old favourite peanut butter and celery slices?

So, is a vocabulary of 200 words common at sixteen months?

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Never mind about the peanut butter suggestion. I didn't read the other replies before I posted. I second (third? fourth?) the oatcakes suggestion, BTW. You can buy them prepared in stores, usually each box has several sealed plastic packets with four or so oatcakes per packet, so freshness isn't a problem.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

So, is a vocabulary of 200 words common at sixteen months?

No, the average kid has about 10 words at this age. 200 words is uncommon, but not totally out there - there are some toddlers who are just early talkers. I don't think you can put too much weight on it. There's a huge range of verbal development, with some kids not saying more than a few words until they're over 2, and they all learn to talk eventually.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

When the other Alex was little, I'd make him "a mountain with dirt," which was Rice 'N Shine hot rice cereal (ingredients: ground rice), with a couple of scoops of date sugar sprinkled on top, with some soy milk poured into a crater in the middle. The amusement value of the visual realism never wore off.

[ailbhe]

Linnea loves dipping lumps of cold potato in mayonnaise. She also eats a fair amount of fried potato chips/fries/whatever. Getting enough fat into her is a problem, because of no dairy, but we can tell when she's short of fat because she starts eating margarine straight from the tub.

That dancing picture makes my heart go squoosh every time I see it.

[juthwara.livejournal.com]

Does she like goldfish crackers? The cheese would provide more protein and fat than a graham cracker, but would still be dry and portable to take along when you're out.

I bought a Snack Trap recently, which I'm starting to think is the best toddler invention ever. It facilitates grazing and self-feeding without getting Cheerios all over the living room (except, of course, when she pulls out handfuls and starts deliberately dropping them on the floor. Nothing can truly prevent a toddler from making a mess :)).

We're big fans of fatty things spread on bread and cut into bite-size pieces - hummus, guacamole, olive oil, pesto (K had some before we got the "absolutely no dairy" edict; I'm currently working on a dairy-free recipe). Since dairy isn't a problem for Alex, you could try cream cheese as well.

Of course, I'm not sure I'm the best person to give anyone advice on fattening up their child. K weighed in at twenty pounds, four ounces at her most recent doctor's visit, and I'm a little afraid to see where that lies on the growth charts. I just keep looking at her 6-foot, 145 pound father and hoping this is all genetics.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The Snack Trap (http://www.snacktrap.com/Search.bok?no.show.inprogress=1&sredir=1&category=Snack%20'N%20Sip%20Time:Snack-Trap).

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

She sounds absolutely delightful.

Everybody has already suggested cheese, so maybe eggs? Henry's not huge, so maybe I'm not terribly expert on this subject, but his weight percentile and height match up. Personally, I think that letting her self-regulate what she eats is the best idea for long term health. I know for younger children, the growth charts are figured for formula babies - I wonder if for toddlers they trend more towards children with less healthy diets?

Another thought - do you feed her juice? I've read that the more juice they drink, the less likely they are to take in calories in food. You generally feed her what you're eating? I'm guessing that you eat fairly healthy, maybe she just needs foods at regular mealtimes that are just more calorically dense?

Just some random thoughts, from a mommy whose proto-toddler isn't at that stage yet.... :-)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Another thought - do you feed her juice? I've read that the more juice they drink, the less likely they are to take in calories in food. You generally feed her what you're eating? I'm guessing that you eat fairly healthy, maybe she just needs foods at regular mealtimes that are just more calorically dense?

We're trying to move towards feeding her what we're eating, especially now that Michael isn't working late and therefore family dinners are possible. For the most part, she eats more healthily than we do.

Sample menu:

Breakfast - 1/2 cup oatmeal made with whole milk, 4 strawberries, 2 tablespoons Cheerios, 4oz whole milk.

Snack - 2 tablespoons mini graham crackers.

Lunch - 1 slice deli ham, 1 stick of string cheese, 1/2 slice whole wheat bread, 4 cooked baby carrots, 10 grapes, 4oz whole milk.

Snack - Earth's Best wholegrain carrot-raisin bar.

Dinner - 2/3 cup pasta topped with about 2 tablespoons tomato sauce, 1.5 tablespoons Italian turkey sausage, and 1 tablespoon peas; 1/2 banana, 4oz whole milk.

So: lots of dairy, lots of fruit, preponderance of whole grains, small quantities of meat and vegetables. No juice. She does eat eggs well, and her ped gave us the green light to give them to her as often as she wants, so we'll probably start offering scrambled eggs or egg salad more often. (I've been cringing about the mayonnaise in egg salad, but now it sounds like just the thing, doesn't it?)

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Looks like a lot of food to me. The only big difference between that and Henry's diet is that he leans more towards meats and protien sources (beans, eggs), and not so much the grains. Hmm, maybe you could replace that whole milk with half and half. :-D

I'm betting more and more that those charts lean towards kids who eat chicken nuggets and french fries... She may be thin now, but she probably has a much more healthy future than your average 50th percentile kid.

($5 says that in about three months I have similar worries.)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'm betting more and more that those charts lean towards kids who eat chicken nuggets and french fries...

If her absolute weight was low on the charts, but followed a normal upward curve, I would just figure her for a skinny kid. What concerns me is that she's dropped in percentile, from well above average (but in keeping with her height) to well below.

($5 says that in about three months I have similar worries.)

Hopefully, by then, I'll be able to tell you how we turned it around!

I made some banana-raisin-bran muffins last night and brought them out for morning snack. They disappeared in a heartbeat. (Alex and two of her friends split two muffins.) She also had some peach slices, raisins, and banana slices that another playgroup mom handed out. (All of the kids eat like they're starving at playgroup, no matter how they eat at home.) I think I'll also try pumpkin bread and zucchini bread for variety.

I don't think I'll give her half-and-half to drink, but I might use it in cooking. ;-) My sister also recommended putting butter on her bread or crackers, and melting cheese on her veggies. That's an easy change to make. But I think that adding denser snacks, and offering snacks even if she doesn't ask for them, will probably take care of things.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the butter or cheese idea. Likewise, melt some mozz on her spaghetti, or replace the turkey sausage with hamburger or pork sausage. It looks like her diet is pretty low fat, with the exception of the whole milk.

I was talking to my sister today, mom to the Amazing Growing Baby (tm). Eleanor was over 20 lbs by 3 months old. She's 19 months old now, and weighs 26 lbs. I think she went for a 6 month period where she didn't gain a thing. Her weight percentile has dropped significantly - she's still near average, but she was at 99th for so long. Karoline, my sister, said that she got a peek at her own baby book, and Eleanor's growth oddities mirrored her own closely. Maybe you could get your or Michael's baby book, and find that Alex is matching what you did?

You know, I do find growth patterns, food, and baby nutrition fascinating. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Could you try estimating the calories she eats in a typical day such as you listed, and then compare it to the RDA of calories for her age group? (If such a number is available.) Maybe she's eating healthy, filling things, but because they are reasonably low-fat and low-calorie, it isn't adding up right for weight gain. Good luck! A.C.