The Little One

Liam's appointment yesterday didn't go well. We did the usual.....wait forever, finally get called back, undress, measure length, measure head and then off to the dreaded scale. I'm always a mess when it's time to put him on the scale. He weighed 19 pounds even. I knew it wasn't good, but he had gained a little bit of weight since his 15-month appointment. We went back to the room to wait some more. When the doctor finally came in to see us she said, "Ahhh, William, the little one. Let's see here...oh, this isn't good." And that's when I started to stress. She continued to explain that Liam had fallen even lower on the growth chart for weight. He is now in the .19 percentile. (He was in the .27 percentile at 15 months.) She started talking about red flags, tests they would run, searching for a needle in a haystack, and then she mentioned that he is possibly "Failure to Thrive". I'd heard of this before, but I thought it always referred to people who didn't want to live, people who couldn't get food, people who didn't eat at all. Not my toddler who has more energy than I do and sprints everywhere he goes.

The doctor explained that there may be an underlying cause as to why he isn't gaining weight the way he should and she wants to see him back in a month to decide how to approach the "situation". In the meantime she wants us feeding him high fat foods. Lots of butter, cheese, starches...all of those things I try to avoid. (So if you see me and think I look like I've gained a few pounds, you'll know why!) I told her how picky of an eater he is and she said to feed him whatever he'll eat. So, I guess we'll be doing a lot of this over the next month......

Our game plan is to feed him 3 meals and 2 snacks each day. After each meal, we'll give him something to eat that we know he likes, something that even if he's full he won't say no to. Hence the Cheeto's in these pics! (I had to include the two next ones....Liam learned to suck the Cheeto's dust off of his fingers today. I was cracking up!)

I'm just so confused about the whole thing. He seems healthy to me. Yeah, he's skinny, but does anyone remember how skinny David and I were back in high school? We were just as skinny as toddlers, but his doctor doesn't think genetics has anything to do with it. Really?!?!?!

Anywho....after Liam was stuffed with pizza and Cheeto's, I decided to put him in his OSU outfit. As soon as I changed him and put him on the floor, he went straight to his bucket of sports balls and picked up the OSU basketball. Smart boy!!!!
I'm sure that in this next picture he is thinking, "Mom, I don't have time for pictures right now...I'm going in for a slam dunk!"

I love this precious boy more than words can say. To think that something, minor or not, might be wrong with him breaks my heart. Please pray that Liam gains weight this month!!!