Out the Window

The thing about parenting is sometimes you just have to take anything you've ever been told, or read in the many "guide-books", and throw it out the window. That was yesterday for me.

I've read many an article about the correlation between ADD and watching tv at a young age. So before Caysen came home, Lance and I agreed that there would be no tv for Caysen until he was at least two, and then it would be limited. Well, yesterday, Caysen had his PT evaluation and they actually recommended letting him watch tv to help him with language and communication. It was hard to digest (and I'm still trying to convince myself it's the right thing), but I get what they are saying. Even if I talk to him all day long, it won't be as beneficial as him hearing the different voices, tones, etc. that children's cartoons can offer. He now has a handful of videos from Sesame Street, to Dora, to Veggie Tales. He won't be a sit-in-front-of-the-tv-all-day kind of a kid, but Lance and I are going with what the PT coordinator suggests and allowing him to watch a limited amount of tv every day. It's hard because I still think tv is a waste of time and doesn't benefit us intellectually, but I can see how it may be helpful when it comes to developing social skills. Let's hope this is the right decision.

Vegetables and fruits are good for us; we all know that. Growing up, our parents told us we had to eat our vegetables or else. In health class, we learned about the food pyramid and how the "fats" category is at the teeny-tiny tip of the pyramid. Most modern schools of thought advise us to eat raw rather than eating a lot of processed foods. Fruits and vegetables equal healthy, too much dairy and fats equal unhealthy. This may all be true, but for Caysen, we are tossing it out the window:

We went to the Dr. yesterday and my world was turned upside down. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration ;) Caysen's pediatrician (who is amazing and great and wonderful) told me that "Caysen is the kind of kid that can feel free to add a dollop of butter to his food". Obviously, I know that babies can have more fats than adults, but our goal with Caysen is to pack those calories in any way we can and worry less about how many servings of fruits or vegetables he is getting in a day. The boy gets to live on pedia-sure, yogurt, and a sprinkling of fruits and veggies. He has a bit of a reflux problem and wasn't keeping his food down all the time, so if he isn't loving something we give him, it's better to give him something he does like, rather than him gagging it all back up and not taking in any calories. It goes against everything I believe to be true about nutrition...but once again, I get it. Caysen was born extremely early and he's still trying to catch up, so operation calorie overload has begun.