This child cannot be ours

The birthday boy

We went to Griffin's 1 year pediatrician's appointment on Tuesday, and came back in the dumps. He's small. I mean, we knew that, but it doesn't make it any easier to hear. Our pediatrician suggested that we feed him fattier foods and back off on the fruits and vegetables. This is all well and good, but he's hitting the point where he pretty much spits out anything that is not apple sauce or yoghurt. I almost invited him over to our house so that HE could take a stab at feeding the Munch breakfast sausage and cheese. At the end of the visit, he told us not to worry, that he didn't look underweight for his height. I kinda laughed at this point and said, "Well, we shouldn't be surprised, since Tom's dad and my mom are both 5'2"." His response? "He's not even tracking to 5'2"." We drove home both thinking to ourselves that we had a midget on our hands. We didn't dare share our fears out loud.

Of course, I immediately went to Whole Foods and bought up every fattening food I thought he possibly might eat. I shoved peanut butter cookie samples in his mouth as we shopped. I guess I felt (feel) that the height/weight issue is something I can fix, small stature is my fault for not feeding him enough of the right foods. When we got home, he would have none of the greasy new treats, the creamy milk and cheese. Tom was on duty for dinner. He had much the same experience. Lots of food-as-art, very little food-as-sustenance. It just makes you want to cry. Munch finally accepted the offered greek yoghurt, and Tom proceeded to feed him a good eight ounces of the stuff. Which he then puked all over me and the bathroom floor when I returned from dinner. Did I mention that he had three vaccinations at the doctor as well?

We are now emerging a bit from the panic. We have agreed to throttle back on the new foods at least until he recovers from his flu and chicken pox vaccines. We aren't going to stop trying, but we aren't going to try to change his genetic code through food, either.