Wed 18 Aug 2010
Milk Battle
Posted by Erin under Daily Life
[6] Comments
It would be cool if this post were about water balloons filled with cold milk, lobbed at adversaries in the hot sun (mental image courtesy of dr. g). But no. We have a formula switch coming up in the a.m., and I’m not looking forward to it. Abigail’s G.I. doctor is far more concerned than her pediatrician about her slowing weight gain, and wants me to a)feed her higher-calorie foods and b)switch her to a higher-calorie elemental formula. I’ve tried three bottles of the new formula over the last two days and she has drunk a total of 2 ounces. I myself am not super-worried about her weight gain, though I don’t like feeling her tiny ribs and shoulder blades so sharply through her skin. She is a glacially slow, cautious eater, and a very active baby (her whole life is a pilates + step aerobics routine) and her digestion is not that efficient yet. If she would let me help her eat more often, she’d do better. My general feeling is that she will grow out of her skinniness when she becomes more proficient at feeding herself and her digestive system matures, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. I’m on board with increasing the calories in theory, but not too excited about helping her adjust to a new, equally yucky, formula. There are two options with the new one: unflavored, which tastes like some kind of cleaner mixed with sweet-n-low and the powdered cheese packet from a mac-n-cheese box; or vanilla flavored, which tastes like cake batter plus an extra cupful of sweet-n-low and, of course, the cleaner. We’re going with unflavored. It’s closer to her former formula; Abi doesn’t like super-sweet things anyway; and it will be an easier transition to regular milk when that day finally arrives. So if you are a prayer and are reading this on Thursday or Friday, send up a shout-out for sweet, hungry Abi, who is probably on a mini-hunger strike.
Her G.I., who is a nice guy and a copious note-taker but not Mr. Details, gave me a “helpful” photocopy of high-calorie foods that I could consider giving Abigail. Milk, ice cream, butter, cream cheese, regular cheese, breakfast drink mixes, yogurt… Um. yeah. Remember that whole bleeding from exposure to milk thing, doc? He had me take the photocopy anyway since it had two items on it that she could eat: peanut butter, and wheat germ. I plan to stick with my stand-by of coconut oil, which is one of the few non-animal sources of the saturated fats that babies need to grow their awesome brains. And it makes everything taste really good. Coconuts are such strange, furry creatures and they produce such delicousness. Where would Thai cuisine be without the mighty coconut?
My prayers are with you and my sweet Abi that all will go well and that she will take to this new formula and start gain the weight that she needs.
You might try feeding her lamb, too! I know that’s animal. But it is the easiest-to-digest of all the animal proteins, and is very high in fat. Ground lamb is expensive ($4-6+/lb), but easy to prepare, and easy for even little ones to eat.
Also, it’s easy to make frosting out of coconut oil, cocoa powder, and stevia and/or powdered sugar or some other sweetener… just mix everything to taste. Spread it on those graham crackers she eats. Of course, it has to be at the right temp — not to cool, or it hardens too much, and not too warm, or it liquifies. Palm oil (like Spectrum organic shortening) works for that, too, and is a little easier to work with.
Peanuts… can she do other legumes? Canned beans are easy to prepare and eat, and are dense in calories and carbs, plus have protein, of course. You don’t have a Trader Joe’s close to you, do you? I get all my canned beans there, because the organic ones are inexpensive, and even the non-organic ones don’t have preservatives, like many canned beans do. Of course, they may make her too gassy, so you have to limit them somewhat. Garbanzos are the least gassy…
I’ll be praying for sweet Abi, and that her transition to new formula will be easier than you anticipate.
Thanks for the suggestions, Karen! I will try lamb. Most meats Abi rejects (I think it’s a texture thing) but she does sometimes eat ground beef. And she loves beans but the fiber in them gets her poop machine working overtime, which kind of defeats the purpose. She’s slowly getting better at processing them. My other idea is to space out her snacks and meals more so that I know she is actually hungry when I offer her food.
Tx for the prayers, Bea and Karen. She did… okay today. Drank about 4 oz at each feeding. Normally she does about 6 oz. Maybe the extra calories make her feel full faster? I showed her the new can and had her watch me make the first few bottles so she wasn’t shocked by the new taste. That worked pretty well, as did adding 1 part vanilla flavored formula to five parts regular. It actually makes for a tolerable drink.
Glad that Abi handle it a little bit better, she is still in my prayers. When we were at Karens a whitle back Candice had this dish there that had Quinoa it it its gluten free it has a count of 5 grams of protien if Abi can handle this maybe it might put weight on her.
We like quinoa, too, and Fiala can eat it! I was hesitant to simply offer all the foods that Fiala can eat, in my earlier comment.
That was a good idea, to do a 1:5 vanilla:plain formula ratio. After I read this last night, I got to thinking that I wish there was a bare-bones elemental formula, one that had the hydrolized protein, vitamins, and other nutrients, but to which one could add their own sweetener and fat and perhaps flavor.
Two words: fish sticks. Ding ding ding! We have a winner!