feeding my girl

I can laugh at myself today! I went food shopping to replenish our much dwindled supplies and to buy some things that I could tempt Julia to eat and add a bit of meat onto her gettin'-skinnier-all-the-time frame. She has lost three, almost four, pounds since the beginning of December. I am sure it is due to the drugs because when she is clear of the Aderrall, she reverts back to eating like a truck driver.

Julia has never been more than lean, and she has always been solid. She weighs more than you think when you look at her. And she grows. The kid is getting taller all the time. She has been eating three squares plus snacks since we met. And she eats good food. She has never been into junk food. She likes some cookies, ice cream, and cheese doodles, but she likes to drink water, doesn't eat much bread, doesn't like cheese (except on pizza), loves fruit and vegies and eats a moderate amount of meat. Rice and noodles are her mainstays.

Since the Aderrall, however, her appetite has gotten smaller and smaller, and now, I am supposed to supplement/enrich her diet so that she get more calories. And here is a task that I am completely unprepared for. I know how to eat healthy, I know how to diet and how to fast, but never have I helped someone gain weight.

It is against my ethnic heritage.

And so, I wound up in my local supermarket with no idea of what to buy to fatten up my little girl. I bought some regular cream cheese, some applesauce that was sweetened, juice that doesn't have water in it. I bought some Ensure. I had no idea what I was doing.

Luckily, we had OT today and Annie told me to add ground nuts to muffins, and protein powder to vegetables, and peanut butter to almost anything. She copied pages from a baby food book that I need to read. I don't doubt that I will figure it out but for a long time I have considered myself pretty competent in feeding those whom I feed.

There is always something new to learn.