Thursday, March 8, 2012

18 Months and Eating

Thomas turned 18 months old on the third of this month! He is one busy, needy, vibrant little boy. Him and his sister play well together a lot more these days. It is really cute when they are getting along because they will both start laughing hysterically. If you are having a rough day and then hear that joyous noise, you would be a fool to not have it brighten your day.

As bad as I want to compare Thomas with Savannah at this age, I will just explain how this sweet boy is doing. For starters, he likes to take things apart. We have an old cell phone we have given him to play with. We have downloaded baby games for him and he enjoys those for about a minute. After that, it is more fun trying to take the phone apart. If he can't take the phone apart, he will try and figure something else to take apart. Future engineer? Maybe?
When he is not trying to figure things out, he loves to be held. I have always tried to encourage my children to play on their own but, since he has been in this world, Thomas just wants to be held. I enjoy it most of the time because he is a great little cuddler, but it becomes very difficult when you are trying to watch your other child and/or get things done. I think Thomas is finally realizing he is just fine when he is not being held....whew! He still likes to cuddle but mainly when he is sleepy.
Thomas's vocabulary is getting better but limited to a handful of words. "Paci", "mama", "daddy", "please", "bye-bye", and "night-night". He has sort of started to say "milk". He may not say a lot but, boy oh boy, does he understand a lot. All I have to say is "breakfast" in the morning and he will run straight to the kitchen and either go to the pantry or the fridge. Sometimes, he will bypass that and go straight for the high chair! Also, at night time, if he is sleepy enough, we can say, "Thomas, are you ready to go to bed?" He will then proceed to go straight into his room and to his crib! Yep, this boy knows!

Thomas had his 18 month check up yesterday. I was a little nervous because Thomas has never been the best eater. His weight is never on the chart. (his height is, but even that progresses at a slow pace) Backing up for a minute, at his 15 month check up, his weight was 18 pounds. At his 18 month check up, he was 18 pounds and he had only grown 1/4 of an inch. We have explained to the doctor that he will eat but he just doesn't eat a lot. Dinner has been our biggest struggle. There are nights that we put him to bed and he hasn't eaten. I know it sounds weird but he will sleep through the night and in the morning he wakes up normal. He doesn't appear to be starving at any given time.
We have tried almost everything we can think of to get him to eat. I have even cut back on snacking. (even though I never let him have a lot of snacks in the first place) The doctor recommended a feeding clinic in Montgomery. Aric and I had never heard of such a thing but it supposed to be very helpful for children who struggle with eating. Basically, you make an appointment for your child and a nutritionist will observe your child eating. Once they can see how your child is eating, they taylor a specific plan for your child to help encourage better eating habits. We have no idea if this will even work but we decided to go for it because we figured it would be worth a shot.

His poor eating has been a cause of stress for me. It really shoudln't because, as I mentioned earlier, he sleeps fine through the night. He has A LOT of energy during the day and he is very strong! (he's skinny, but he's strong) But I guess, as a parent, seeing your child not eat, is never a fun thing to go through. Especially at this yound and delicate age when they are supposed to be growing and developing.
Thankfully, Aric has been a huge support. He doesn't stress like I do, so I have REALLY been able to lean on him for encouragement.

Our sweet boy is such a huge blessing and other than this eating issue, he is a healthy 18 month old. Everyday I give thanks to God for giving us to 2 healthy children.
I will be sure to update on how this feeding clinic goes as soon as I can.

Now, since it is alreay THURSDAY!! and I have lots of laundry to do, I better get to it.

Have a splendid day!

God Bless,
Emily

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