2 Year Old Eating And Food Pyramid

There are days when Abi is a picky eater and since she has a CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) we had to watch her eating habits closely and keep record of every milliliter of milk she had since day 1. I think this has stuck with us, or at least with me and sometimes, I must admit, I am stressing too much about her eating, or rather not eating.

During one of the last cardiologist appointments we talked to Dr. Greene and he said something very important, especially for me. He basically said that if children are offered food and have some choice they won't starve themselves and if Abi was not interested in eating at times, not to stress about it and let her be.

It helped a lot at the time, but couple months later I'm back to stressing about it again, so I started reading a little bit on the subject and thought I would share some of what I read here, with others who may be like me ;-).

Melanie Shay, a registered dietitian, in her article on BabyCenter.com, says that it's common for 2 year olds to seem like they don't eat, but as long as they grow normally, they most probably are fine and we should not force them to eat or eat more.

Here is the best part. Per Melanie Shay, a recent study of children and their eating habits, from the American Dietetic Association showed that when children are presented with variety of foods, almost all of them will eat enough to meet their nutritional needs. How awesome is that?!

Since I am the one usually making deals with Abi just to make her eat a bit more, after reading the entire article and couple others, and looking at the Food Pyramid for Young Children I decided I will give Abi a break. If she doesn't want to eat enough, and by enough I mean according to my standards and expectations, I won't bother her and will let her be. We'll see how this works out for all of us. Her weight gain and my nervous system ;-)

Below I put the screenshots (with the links) of the Food Pyramid for Young Children and couple other links you may find interesting interesting:

Nutrition Guidance for Healthy Children Aged 2 to 11 Years

Kids Eat Right

Art

Infant CPR

Recently I've been thinking about the CPR class J and I had to take before she was discharged home after having Abi and before leaving cardiac unit after Abi first surgery. This triggered some memories and pushed my imagination a bit, so I looked at this again.

I remember when couple years ago J and I where spending some time with a friend of ours and her little girl, Oliwia, choked, swallowing a toy or something. We were all sitting on the floor talking and playing with Oliwia and she was just too fast for us. Her mom totally froze. And to be honest, we all can dream and imagine how we would react in different situations, but when they come our way, it's instinct or learned and practiced reactions that will take over.

Another friend of ours visited me this week with her little baby boy and we talked about it too. Since her and her husband have a little bit different approach to feeding and introducing foods than J and I have, the boy happens to choke on things a bit more often than Abi did at his age. So we talked about the proper techniques and how to react in such situations and then I understood that every parent should be required to take the CPR class before leaving the hospital with their newborn. I believe it doesn't matter if a baby has a heart condition, any other medical condition, or is absolutely healthy. Children choke and knowing what to do then can save their lives.

I thought I would share this short instructional video with you and, since we live in Smart Phones and Tablets era, this app for iPhone/iPad and Android that can teach you what to do when your or somebody else's child is choking or needs CPR.


CPR instructions
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/infantcpr.html

Instructional video
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/videodemo/infant-cpr-video.html

Android and iPhone apps

iPhone app
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/cpr-iphone.html


Android app
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/cpr-android.html

Here are couple screenshots from the iPad2 app. It looks the same for your iPhone and since I don't have access to any Android devices I don't have any screenshots (I will be happy to put them here if you can send me some) [Update: I have just received a confirmation from a friend of mine that this app looks the same on Android devices ;-) ]













I hope you never need to know any of it, and hope if you do this helps.

Art


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Cardiac Catheterization Explained

One of the groups we are following, 1in100 shared this interesting video today. Our little girl had her cath done couple times and we know there are many parents out there often wondering what a cath (catheterization) is and what happens during the procedure.

I post this here hoping others find it helpful.

http://tinyurl.com/3eroqh6

Art


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Crosswords Over Cartoons

Yes, this morning Abi watched some cartoons when she woke up. She usually does that while drinking her milk, but then she got on the big comfy chair, picked grandma's crosswords and..... worked on them for quite a while hehehe.

I sure hope her love for books will stick to her for years ;-)







Art

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New On The Blog

We have added 3 new sections to Abi's blog.

One is the slideshow you can watch at the top of the site with all the pictures from Abigail's Picassa Album, another is 5 the most popular posts and then there is a Videos sections with some videos we would like to share with others.

If you have any good videos you think others would enjoy, please shoot us an email and we will be happy to review them and add to this section.

Hope you have a great day,


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