Skinny or just high metabolism?

So following the introduction of whole fruits using my DIY mesh feeders, I picked up one of those commercial mesh feeders during one of our recent shopping trips.

Nathan has taken to it pretty well, though I think he sometimes gets a little confused on whether it’s meant as a way to eat food or a toy to play with. Sometimes after a few chomps or sucks, he turns it around and starts gnawing at the plastic bits instead or just bangs it on the table or throws it around to see what happens, which then creates more messes.

This basically defeats the purpose of getting the contraption as I thought it would be neater than using gauze or fabric. So I’m wondering now if I should switch back to the latter.

I’ve also started letting him feed himself more – apart from rusks, he’s getting quite adept at handling bread and toast. He does get himself and everything around him pretty crumbly in the process. But I tell myself it’s an important developmental step he needs to work at and resist the urge (sometimes) to take the piece of toast and feed him myself instead.

He recently had his 8-month check with the child health nurse. She was all thumbs up about everything BUT was quite surprised when she put him on the scales. Turns out this chubby-cheeked fella is now at the lower end of the third percentile range. This is especially surprising as he was right on the 50th percentile mark at his last check with the child health nurse a few months ago.

I was really puzzled at how my sausage-link-fingered baby could be at the lower end of the weight range….

Many people have been telling me that Asian babies are likely to be slightly smaller than their Caucasian counterparts. But isn’t the key word ‘slightly’? Am I missing something here? Have I not been feeding him the right foods? Have I been too generous with the fruit and vegetables? Should I be loading him up more on eggs, cream and butter? Okay, the latter might be a little extreme but perhaps I really should be thinking more along those lines.

So anyway, I’ve already calmed down and move past this paranoid first-time-mum episode and just get on with the program. The nurse was also very reassuring in the fact that Nathan was healthy and thriving. However she still did give me some suggestions on more high calorie foods to feed him and told me to bring him back for another weight check in a few weeks.

So I’ve adjusted Nathan’s menu and we’ll see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t, maybe Nathan is just a high metabolism kid. He’s probably burning a lot of energy now because he’s recently discovered how to drag himself across the floor to get around – quite efficient at it too I must say, but more on that next time.