I wrote last week about the fact that the Monster’s diet is getting more and more restrictive of late (see Dwindling Options).  On Saturday, I took him to the doctor for his annual checkup.

(Fortunately, he didn’t have to get any shots, was generally cooperative and only resisted when the nurse wanted him to do a hearing test… but we’re not worried really about his hearing, so.)

One thing that our doctor is concerned about is his weight – his BMI is 17.6, which apparently is high for a child his age, and he’s 88th percentile weight-wise, while only 69th percentile height-wise.  So, among the other things we were discussing with regards to his health, she brought up that we need to be getting him more exercise (which he’ll get when he goes to camp – his school doesn’t have a phys-ed class due to lacking a gym teacher) and that we have to watch his eating.

So, because it is a concern, I brought up the decline in what he’s willing to eat.

She pointed out that five year olds are, frankly, known for going through picky eating phases, so she’s not too worried – he seems healthy and with the daily multivitamin he’s getting what he needs to grow.  But she did agree that we need to be thinking of things to ensure that he’s getting enough calories to get through the day.

So I felt like a complete idiot when she pointed out that if he’s willing to eat cereal bars and granola bars, we might consider giving him those for breakfast (admittedly once we’ve vetted them to make sure that the bars in question are healthy and not just thinly-disguised sugary snacks).  And sure enough, he does eat them – even though he’s never shown interest in cereal bars before – without too much of a complaint at the moment.

We’re going to be looking for recipes to whip up our own as well in the near future, something to ensure that we’re diversifying his diet and covering all the bases… but it has been nice, these last two days, not having to fight with him to get him to eat before the bus comes.