Yesterday, Finley had her twelve month appointment with Dr. K. I absolutely love going to the pediatrician because I always have a million questions to ask by the time the appointment comes around. I also just love Dr. K and leave our appointments feeling refreshed and focused.
As soon as Dr. K came in, he said "Oh, my word! We have a little pumpkin, don't we?" And I laughed and said "Yep! She is ORANGE, huh? Good thing we are OSU fans!" He laughed and said "She is obviously not jaundiced since the whites of her eyes are white... she is just getting a lot of Beta Carotene." I explained that without being able to give her fruit, everything she eats is orange and he laughed and said that was a typical problem. He also said that there is absolutely no harm in her having so much Beta Carotene and that there are actually some health benefits from it. He just couldn't get over how orange she is though!
We also discussed moving to whole milk, food and regular allergies, nutrition, shots, etc. Now that Finley is starting to move away from baby food, I have been concerned with how to make sure she is getting the right nutrition, but Dr. K said that there have been a ton of studies done and that even the pickiest eaters who don't eat anything hardly at all still do fine as long as they maintain their growth curve. So thankfully, he said as long as she continues to gain weight I shouldn't worry about counting grams of fiber, calcium, vitamins, etc.
He also said to give her a sippie cup of whole milk and if she took it then we were done and to not go back to bottles or to formula. Aunt Amy told me that there are certain milestones that you are just ready for and aren't too sad about and this is one of them for me. We have quite the hodge podge of bottle supplies and I often become frustrated trying to find the right nipple, lid, and ring for the bottle I'm using. Plus cleaning them is a pain as well. Here's a pic of Finley taking her last bottle last night:
And pics of her taking her first sippie cup of real milk this morning:
Thankfully, Finley has finally mastered the sippie cup. This has been one of my biggest failures as a parent. I simply do not ever remember to practice sippie cup drinking with her so I'm really relieved that she just magically got this on her own. It happened on Sunday when I read that she should be off of bottles by 18 months and that she should be down to only 2 bottles a day. I thought "Oh, dear, I better figure this out!" Fortunately, I gave her a sippie cup of water with lunch and she just gulped it down! Whew!
Dr. K also said that as social as Finley is that we might at some point need to put her in MDO more or otherwise she might become a brat! (His exact words!) He just said that a lot of kids who have a really social personality become behavior problems when they get bored at home and don't have interaction with their peers. I thought this was a really good tip! In January, she'll start going to Bible Study with me on Tuesday's and MDO on Thursday's so that should be perfect for now and we'll see what happens in the future.
Finley did get several immunizations and handled them great! She cried while she was getting them, but as soon as she could sit up, she was fine and never fussed again! This time was a bit more difficult for me than previous ones because I knew that she had a better idea of what was going on and that I was letting them do this to her! =)
But overall, Finley is doing perfectly for her age and is right on target with what Dr. K expects! We are sooooooo thankful for our healthy child!
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