Skinny Boy

Spencer has been to the doctor again recently because he started loosing weight again and is still having trouble with feeding himself and being a motivated eater. The doctor recommended some over the counter medicine to help his digestive tract and gave us a note to give the school to make eating a high priority there. He was going all day without eating or drinking while at school. No wonder he lost weight. The dr also recommended a nutrition counselor and so we went to see her as well.

Here's the basics- send any high fat/high calorie/high protein food you have send our way because our boy has to eat between 2500-3000 calories a day and get between 80-100 grams of fat a day. Protein is a bonus of course, but the nutrition counselor stressed eating FAT FAT FAT!

Slather margarine on EVERYTHING, put heavy cream in his cereal, give him protein bars, no fruit, no vegetables, no whole grains (he's on a fiber supplement) because these things give the "appearance of fullness" without actually eating a ton of calories. Most of us need that strategy to loose weight, but Spencer is so far behind in the scale that he needs the good fats and lots of them! (and throw in all of the bad fats for now too. We aren't concerned about high cholesterol right now, just getting him fed enough so his organs don't decide to start shutting down)

Luckily I stumbled upon a lunch he'll eat better at school- pizza lunchables. High in fat and calories and when paired with a protein bar pretty good for you too. He has been eating better at school with assistance and taking more independent bites at home- not back to normal by any means, but it does seem like the baby steps forward have helped him remember he likes food and wants to eat it more often!

He's getting better slowly and we are seeing progress with this new strategy, but it will be a very long process to get him back to a normal weight since he's about 25-30 pounds below the lower range of normal.

I did have to loosen the button elastic (love those on pants now for kids!) on a few pairs of jeans recently so that's a step in the right direction! Too bad I had to cut about 3 button holes last fall to get them to stay up, but it's a start!

I was joking with a friend recently about how opposite our diet plans are. Spencer eating everything in site- or at least staring at it all- and I'm having to cut back on eating everything in site while I stare at all of the yummy food he's not eating. Ironic isn't it? Too bad there isn't such a thing as a fat transplant because as his mother I'm pretty sure I'd be a match. Take all the flub from my rear end and give it to Spencer! I'll take one for the team!

Seriously though we are staying positive about this. Knowing what the problem is and how to fix it go a long way to helping us cope with this challenge.