A month ago we went for our first visit to the Consultatie Bureau, the Dutch public health department where kids go for wellness checks and vaccinations. James was not yet nursing consistently and we were struggling to make sure he was gaining enough weight for his age. In retrospect, we realize how confusing it can be among all the charts and opinions of what a healthy baby/weight is, to feel confident that you are making the best choices for your child; especially since there is no accurate way to measure ingestion when a baby is only nursing, except through behaviour. At any rate, our last trip was disconcerting as James was pronounced slightly underweight and the doctor that day did her best to push formula on us in spite of our explicit intention to continue nursing. After that, he immediately began a more regular pattern of feeding and the digital baby scale we rented showed daily gains that put him quickly in the normal curve.
This morning was our two month visit and though we had quickly realized there never was a real problem, we felt vindicated by his weight (up from 3470 g/7 lb 10oz to 4425 g/9 lb 12oz) and more so by his behaviour- active, smiling at the nurse, lifting his head up while on his stomach. The smile faded quickly with his first vaccination shot however (even his Dad looked away at the huge needle), and the rest of the day has been spent reassuring an extra fussy little man. Of course I never thought of it before they stuck my son, but have we not advanced further than sticking 2 month olds with needles to deliver vaccinations? The nurse we saw had no formula agenda and joked about having to give all these kids injections- 'If all the babies I've ever stuck remembered this, there is no way I'd be able to walk down the street...'. She also said there is an old Dutch saying about children, something like, 'Some babies are so cute you just want to eat them- and when they turn 14 you often wish you had..'
1 comment:
Ha! I think my mom wished she had eaten me. : )
Don't worry about the weight. Some kids aren't food-motivated - Annika isn't. She got to the 20th % in weight (80s in height) only at her 2 year checkup. Better napping helped her eating, though - what there was of it.
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