Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Will Mobility Improve Nutrition?

For months, therapists and doctors have been telling us that my wife and I need to work as hard as we can to get our daughter to eat more. Without better nutrition they felt that she wouldn't have the energy to learn to crawl. She'd just be too tired.

Well, turns out that my daughter learned to crawl anyway. Now I'm wondering if, in fact, the opposite of what doctors have said is true. Meaning, now that she crawls around, will she eat more? She's definitely burning more calories than when she used to just sit still all the time. And at mealtime since her crawling improvements, she does seem to eat more.

What I'm concerned about is that it's still not enough to turn around the calorie deficit she's running. In fact, her mobility might even be widening the gap between the calories she burns and the calories she takes in. I bathed my daughter for the first time in a while, since my wife was out with friends last night. The poor little girl just looked so thin and frail when I got her undressed. I'm sick of seeing her ribs and thin little limbs. So even if her mobility does improve her eating, I'm looking forward to what nutritionists can do to help this situation. Only two and a half weeks left before we'll find out.

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