Big Boy Zog and the Weight Gain

This post is a sequel to Baby Zog and the Calories which I posted in January and can be read here.

For the last three weeks we have seen a wonderful positive change in BBZ's eating. He still gravitates toward crunchy/grainy snacks, fruit and dairy products. We still sneak high fat and high calories like cream cheese or yogurt smoothies into his daily diet. However, he has definitely expanded his "food portfolio" lately and seems more willing to try new things. For the most part he remains to be what I call a "food purist" - meaning that he'd rather eat foods in their pure form than foods that have been combined into a certain dish or meal. In other words, he's likely to eat a slice of bread, a slice of cheese and some turkey, but not if you put them together into a sandwich. In fact, at school he pulls the cheese off and eats it first; then he eats the bread. However, every now and then he'll surprise us in a major way. Last week he ate celery with pimento cheese and yesterday he ate an entire half of an egg salad sandwich. I about fell on the ground when his teacher told me that. Never underestimate the power of two-year-old peer pressure to make a kid eat!

The biggest change is that he consumes LARGER quantities of the foods he loves. We stopped counting his calories back in March because we found it to be very stressful and not all that helpful. We have a good idea of what he needs each day and lately he seems to be getting it! The anxiety is starting to wane and we are very encouraged. We can actually dine in a restaurant and just order off the kids' menu for him. It sounds simple, but that is such a great feeling.

Given this recent progress I was about as excited for his 30 month check up this week as I was for the sonogram I had at 19 weeks pregnant. We got checked in and Nurse Maria asked, "are there any issues you'd like to specifically address?" My reply was simple, "If that scale says at least 30 lbs, we have no issues because it means he's gaining weight again." Maria coaxed BBZ onto the scale and flashed me a grin that said we were in the clear. Here are the glorious stats:

Age: 2 years, 7 months
Weight: 30.86 lbs (60%)
Height: 37 inches (73%)
BMI: 15.85 (37%, healthy weight)

So basically, he's tall and skinny, but healthy and gaining weight again. We'll keep on keepin on...

I wouldn't do justice to my pride if I didn't also mention that after a robust five minute conversation with BBZ during which he told the doctor all about his friends at school and pointed out his colors, numbers, letters, animals and shapes - including his favorite, the octagon - our pediatrician looked at us and laughed and said, "you two are in trouble. This kid is smart." Apparently, he's even smart enough to know he needs to eat!