Remember my one concern about the new milk for the babies?
It wasn't just cost.
Kendra refuses to drink any more than what she always was drinking. In fact, she's drinking less milk, I think because she's getting fuller from the Nutren.
Before she'd have 150 ml full cream in the mornings, now she leaves 20 - 40 ml every morning. At night she is taking 100 - 110 ml, the same as she'd had before.
We've tried giving extra bottles during the day - she will not take it (we persisted for about 4 days before I emailed the dietitian).
My default style is not to worry about these things and carry on with the food as before (as they are such good eaters) but I wanted to find out if I was being too blase about it.
K is a smart cookie; if she senses that her eating (or drinking) is important to us, she gets picky about the food. I didn't want to turn her off her milk totally so I even say "should I give this to Connor?" and she is definitely done because she says "yes" :)
So I emailed the dietitian and here is her email response:
Nutren junior or PediaSure will definitely make your kids fuller (it’s a complete meal replacement).
To cut costs, you can give half milk requirement as Nutren and the other as full cream milk. It is always a skill to get the right balance of giving enough nutritional support without affecting the eating or making an issue of drinking/eating more to catch up weight.
I wouldn’t give Kenda any more bottles if she is not happy to drink it. Give her what she can take without causing a fuss.
Totally agree with this.
I am doing their morning and bedtime bottles with Nutren. For cereal and cooking (and custard in winter - mmm, can't wait), I use full cream.
Connor is easily having 500 ml or more a day, 350ml of that is Nutren and Kendra has about the same as before (400 ml) but 250ml of that is Nutren.
I updated their spreadsheet with the latest weights and calculated where they should be in 2 months when we see Dr S again. So we're working towards it but not stressing unduly, which I think is the healthy way to do things anyway.
Do you ever worry about your children's eating?
P.S. I had a lady come up to me in the shops to ask me about baby formula, etc. Clearly I looked like I knew what I was doing? Maybe because I had the babies with me?
I try not to worry too much but its really hard because Ava's growth chart has practically flat lined since she started getting so active and at 14 months she's still wearing (easily) 6-12 month clothes and everything for 12months literally falls off her.
ReplyDeleteThis weekend she has had another bout of tonsillitis which means I'm more stressed than usual because she has refused to eat or drink just about everything we've offered her for 3 days now!
Gosh, Sharon, it's horrible, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThat was what our babies' charts looked like!
I will say that it is always on my mind. Especially when they are happily throwing their meals to the dogs so they can get back to playing.
ReplyDeleteIn that respect, I treat them like the dogs. They will eat when they are hungry! I totally just admitted to raising my kids like dogs!
I worry specifically about my older son's eating. He is incredibly picky (not sure where he gets that from because we are NOT like that), refuses vegetables, refuses fish, LOVES carbs, and eats a total of about 8 foods. It drives me insane most days but I have learnt to not let it get to me too much. Since I am weigh lessing he seems to be more conscious of food - not that he is eating veg or anything like that.
ReplyDeleteMy little boy LOVES his food. He eats anything and everything - I could probably take him for sushi and he'll wolf it down. I absolutely love cooking for him because he ALWAYS enjoys it. So ja, my kids are kind of polar opposites when it comes to the eating thing.
Wow...a spreadsheet? I can't honestly say that I don't worry that much (and that I don't know how to set up a spreadsheet). I wish you could come to some balance soon...this is stressful!
ReplyDeleteI used to worry about it a lot until Nicola went through a week where she just REFUSED to eat even a bite of anything.
ReplyDeleteI even took her to the paed to have her checked out.
He said not to worry as long as she's still drinking. When she's hungry she'll eat.
She balances that kind of behaviour with growth spurts where she eats way more than usual. I guess she knows what she needs...I'm not going to fight her on that instinct too much.