Checking in with the check-up

Annika had her 6-month check-up this Friday. Of course, she is healhty as a horse (how healthy are horses?), but we were able to get a few of our questions answered. Most of these questions were about food since when the nurses from the post-partum ward send you out into the world with your newborn, they neglect to indicate that kids need to eat beyond breastfeeding. Around 4-6 months, you start to worry - do I feed this kid milk forever, or shove a piece of pizza in its face? Well, no to both of those, but you get the idea.

For about a month, we've been feeding Annika oatmeal and a 2.5 ounce serving of Gerber Stage 1 foods. She likes pears the best. She tolerates green beans. Anyway, Annika always seems hungry so we never know if we're doing this right. And don't get me started on scary books that imply we're doing everything wrong.

Well, our pediatrician was comforting, for once, and seemed pleased with our food decisions. He even encouraged us to give her more solids if she seemed hungry after the servings we were providing.

We were also told to give her a dose of flouride each day since she's growing teeth. And he told us to probably stay away from juice since excess juice consumption can lead to obesity. We'll start to use water when feeding her from the cup. At Annika's age, it's time to start teaching cup drinking. Who knew?

Here are the latest stats:

Weight: 17 pounds, 10 ounces
Height: 26.75 inches
Head Circumference: 17.25 inches

Chris and I chuckled when we heard that Annika's head size remained in the 90th percentile. But our pediatrician did not find this funny, as he indicated that larger heads could have brain abnormalities or excess fluid! We were like...um, it runs in the family, trust us. He took a second look at Chris's head, and seemed to agree.