[oceanica]

Here's an article about feeding babies.

Want Leaner Kids? Parents May Need to Toe the Line - Yahoo! News

OK I admit I am guilty, a little. Not because I was watching tv though. It's just that we parents (at least in my case) worry that they won't get enough. I calculated Athena's calories and found out that she really wasn't getting as much as she should. So I pushed. "just a little more Athena! Don't leave that ounce or two in there!" My husband I have to admit was a little early with the addition of rice cereal. He even put it in the bottles of formula (I know, a big no-no!) Kee had to because of his reflux so at least I have an excuse there. And now that they can eat more things it's even worse because they are so finicky and this is when they really need to grow. I hate losing the comfort of at least having the formula as a fall-back for Athena. I'm sure if I calculated the calorie requirements for their age/size they might not be meeting them. It keeps us parents up at night! I know some of my relatives from a 3rd world country who are rather short and I think some of it is from growth stunting/not being fed enough. Going over is better than going under, right? Maybe it's a cultural thing. What are your thoughts on this article? Should we be working on not pushing the eating when they are infants? Is your kid eating enough and is he/she overweight, and did you push them to eat at the infant stage?

[Persephone76]

I never really worried that my DS was not eating enough. They know when they are full or hungry. By pushing they to eat more teaches them that even though they feel full that you still need to eat more.

My son was a small baby and was only in the 10% for weight. He is still (at almost 3) in the 10%. So he's stayed the same the whole time.

He is now a picky eater (comes with the age) and I try to get him to eat things.

Now if he was losing weight at some point or not gaining at all. Then I might have worried.

[Fran27]

I tend to agree with that stuff but some babies get chubby even when you don't make them eat...

[Stormster]

My son has was a chunky little thing but mostly because of his A/R formula which was higher calorie (I think) that normal formula. Now he's a skinny mini (picky eater, not on whole milk anymore) but still in the healthy range.

I have strong feelings about not forcing him to eat. I make the food available but never coerce him to eat more because i want him to feel in control of his own body and also because I want him to have a healthy relationship with food.

I didn't even read the article link in it's entirety but will do so now.

[Persephone76]

I wanted to add that I grow up with Parents who made you clean your plate and I would say that I have a eating problem.

A lot of times I will finish what is on my plate even if I am full.

[Amber76]

My husband has major eating issues that I think came from his parents making him clean his plate and eat things even if he didn't like them. To this day, he will sit down to eat something, take a bite and say, "This is not good at all," and then proceed to eat the entire plate full. He never leaves even one bite on his plate, and I think that is because his parents made him do that as a child. Now he has to be very concious of putting small amounts of things on his plate because he WILL eat every bite, even if he feels stuffed.

When DS was still taking bottles, I had to literally watch the clock to know when to feed him because he NEVER cried to ask for a bottle. He was always too busy smiling, playing, or whatever to be bothered with letting me know he was hungry. Of course, when the bottle touched his lips he sucked the whole thing down so I know he was hungry, he just didn't tell me. People tried to tell me that he would cry when he was hungry, so I tried just waiting for him to tell me one day and he literally went almost 8 hours without anything (he was 5 months old). Since he was on the small side and obviously wasn't going to tell me he was hungry, I had to feed him on a schedule. Now he's almost 18 months and lets me know when he's hungry by saying eat or signing more, so at least I know he feels hungry! And he's about 25th % for weight, so I guess we're doing okay....

[SAVeronika]

I find it particularly interesting that they said you could ask your ped about reading your baby's cues. Really? An outsider who sees your child once every couple of months would be able to read the cues better than the parents who spend most of their time with their kids? It seems like one of those "we'll tell you how to think" things. Who wouldn't know that your baby doesn't want more formula if they turn their heads away from the bottle? I am not worried about babies being overweight before 1 yr of age AT ALL because most of them will shed those little fat rolls once they become mobile. It's much more important to watch WHAT you feed your child once you introduce solids than to focus on the how much. I agree with the PP about not force feeding babies or toddlers, because it does set bad behaviours for life. I vividly remember my mother serving me oversized helpings as a teenager with the little appetite suppressant on the side of the plate when she decided I needed to loose weight. Teaching them to make healthy food choices instead of eating junk once they're eating solids is much more important than obsessing about how much your baby weighs at 6 months old, IMHO.

[OakShannon]

I think the key part of the article is that parents need to be aware and sensitive to their child's cues that they are full. If it's true that parents are overfeeding their babies because they are sitting in front of the TV and not paying attention when baby pushes the bottle away, that's pretty sad. It also seems like we have an impression that bigger babies are healthier. Parents seem to worry more if their baby is at the 10th percentile than if she's at the 90th percentile. But they are equally likely to be a normal, healthy weight. Given the chance, healthy babies (and older kids) are pretty good at regulating their own intake and eating the amount that they need. I think you can make yourself crazy counting calories! Especially once that baby becomes a toddler and his/her calorie intake fluctuates a great deal from day to day. Toddlers are notorious for being picky eaters who seem to live on air for days on end and then make it up in one or two days of heavy eating.

David was a chunky baby. Always at around the 75th percentile for weight and the 35-40th percentile for height. This summer he shot up and his weight has leveled of a bit. (He's still gaining but not at the same rate.) So he's now almost perfectly height/weight proportional. I've never pushed him to eat. I live by, "I'm in charge of what he eats and when. He's in charge of how much he's going to eat."

[portlowski]

DS has has steadily been about 35th % percentile for height and 40th for weight. His birthmother was very overweight and at age 18 she weighed 290. (She has weight loss surgery and has lost about 95 pounds so far) SO I have always been aware that he may be geentically predisposed to being overweight and I have made a conscious effort not to overfeed. When he was a baby my aunt babysat for him and he was hungry and she almost didn't feed him! She was concerned about making him fat. My sister was there and was like, "uhh...duh! You cannot starve a baby!" My family is freaky about weight. I am the "fat one" at 150 pounds and they tlak about my weight constantly. Ugggh.

[nurse_reedle]

My husband and I kind of fight about this. He is *always* pushing Isaac to eat more. And I am always getting onto him for it.

[mommytoEli]

i am chunky. my husband is chunky. none of our kids are. it is bc i also grew up in the "finish your plate" era. lol. i don't do that to my kids. we eat 4 meals a day here- breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner, if they want more, i will give them as much fruit and veggies as they want, but they have to ask. at meals, i never make them finish anything but the veggies. they get their vitamins, drink plenty of water, and i watch their intake of calcium and protein especially well. if i don't think they are getting enough of those 2 things, i modify what they eat, rather than how much.

i actually laugh about this often, bc i know how people should eat, but bc i learned to always be full, it is hard to follow what i know to be right for MYSELF. i hope my kids grow up with a healthier respect for food than i did.

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by mommytoEli

i am chunky. my husband is chunky. none of our kids are. it is bc i also grew up in the "finish your plate" era. lol. i don't do that to my kids. we eat 4 meals a day here- breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner, if they want more, i will give them as much fruit and veggies as they want, but they have to ask. at meals, i never make them finish anything but the veggies. they get their vitamins, drink plenty of water, and i watch their intake of calcium and protein especially well. if i don't think they are getting enough of those 2 things, i modify what they eat, rather than how much.

i actually laugh about this often, bc i know how people should eat, but bc i learned to always be full, it is hard to follow what i know to be right for MYSELF. i hope my kids grow up with a healthier respect for food than i did.

I commend you for being so conscious and for breaking the cycle. It seems to me that too many people don't have this insight! I'm not perfect believe me but force feeding is torture to me!

[DannieAS]

I don't know what you would call this, but I wasn't "forced to clear my plate" at every meal, if I wasn't hungry at lunch (pre-Kinder years) then it wasn't a big deal and I got my saved plate for dinner. (i think that had to do more with our financial situation than a punishment for not-eating)

That being said, I think sometimes overfreeding can be a cultural thing. OUr family is very Americanized, but some cousins fresh off the boat totally overfeed their kids paranoid if they don't eat everything.....and then my parents and my aunt nag her about it.

I say have the information out there, if a family chooses to do their own thing, well so be it.