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Sunday, April 25, 2010

My Good Eater

Recently I discovered that we were giving to much milk to Tesla. How did I discover this? Well Washington State has a program in which they send you info every few weeks or so about your kid. They are signed up when they are born or I guess in our case after their first appointment with a doctor in Washington State. Well since we had her one year appointment last month she was is now has a child profile. What is a Child Profile? CHILD Profile is Washington State's Health Promotion and Immunization Registry system. The system helps ensure Washington's children receive the preventive health care they need.






So every few weeks or months not sure what yet, they send you a mailer with info appropriate to the approximate age of your child. Interesting. Last week I received a brochure titled Nutrition for Toddlers 18 Months to 3 Years. It breaks down the exact servings and quantities a day that your child should be getting of the different food groups. I could not believe this, as a libertarian I am ever so slightly perturbed by the fantasticness of this brochure. On one hand, I want to say, this is a waste of tax payer money. On the other hand, I have 10 books that I have purchased on the bookshelf that give a smattering of suggestions of what to feed your kid but they don't say, here give her 1 cup of vegetables, 1 cup of fruit and so on, I'll actually give the recommendations later on. Was it really that hard to make this info available. Well I guess not, but it had to come from the state... Annoying. 






From this flyer, I learned we were giving Tesla much more than what is recommended for milk in a day. We were giving her milk like it was formula, and she was drinking it like it was and her appetite was starting to fall behind. I think it had to do with the transition from milk to formula. She was drinking about 30-40 ounces a day of formula, so we gave her that much milk. Now since she was in a growth spurt at the time her appetite didn't suffer but now that she's slowed down a bit, she has started not eating all of her meals, and this is meals she's proven to like. So this past week we have been reducing that amount of milk that she's drinking down to about 16 ounces a day. What a difference, she's now eating all the healthy foods, that she's supposed to eat and getting great nutrition from them. Good girl!


Okay so as promised, the guidelines are below. One of the points that it makes is that you should be OFFERING your child this, not that they will definitly eat it all every time, but that they should be offered the foods every day so that they get a good variety of foods to make them healthy, happy and have a good relationship with foods. (That last part I think I made up, but I think it's true.)


Vegetables: Offer 1 cup every day (3-5 servings)
Fruits: Offer 1 cup every day (2-4 servings)
Dairy: Offer 2 cups every day (4-6 servings)
Protein: Offer 2 ounces every day (4-6 servings)
Grains: Offer 3 ounces every day (6-11 servings)

1 comment:

  1. Following from Friday Follow! Stop by my place if you get a minute!

    Sarah
    http://lewiscrazyhouse.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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