Let her eat cake

Childhood obesity has become and epidemic in this country. On almost any given day, you can pick up the newspaper and read about how America's children are expanding at completely unheard of proportions. Schools are changing snack and party policies. Spongebob Square Pants has become a spokes-sponge for baby carrots and Sesame Street characters are plastered all over organic food choices. For all of these reason, Sophia's recent 18 month checkup seemed a little, well, ironic.

She is tall and skinny. There is no question about that. From the day she was born, she has been at the 97 percentile or higher for her height and at the 10 percentile for her weight. Today, she weighs a whopping 21 pounds and is almost 34 inches tall. I imagine she eats just like most toddlers, some days she eats like a horse, other days she survives on air and apple juice.

While talking to the doctor about her weight, I mention that I'm a little concerned that she is so tiny. He says, "Don't worry. She not malnutritioned, she's just petite for her weight and very tall for her age, which she has always been. But if you want to give her ice cream every now and then, you can. You can put butter on her toast if you want and, of course, you can give her Pediasure every day if you want to give her the extra calories. Don't worry about making sure she eats her vegetables, just give her the calories."

It's not everyday the doctor tells you that it's OK to eat ice cream and butter and not to worry about eating your vegetables. It's especially ironic since my husband and I had just launched an all out war to get her to eat some vegetables. Our latest battle ended with her taking one bite of dinner followed by one fruit snack. One for one. It may not have been the best parenting tactic, but she ate some vegetables, so I considered it a victory.

For the record, Sophia has been known to eat only ice cream for dinner, we never short-change her on butter for her toast and she drinks whole milk. I will also continue trying to get her to eat her vegetables.