My Little Beanie Baby

If you have been around Makenna long enough you learn that she just doesn't eat!  Family and friends try to get Makenna to eat too...she does like to eat some, (very little still) of Grandma Carol's food though, right off her plate.  So when we have dinners or get togethers Makenna will climb down and up into grandma's lap and eat a bite of food right off her fork!  

So anyways, Makenna has been on Pediasure from the time she was one until recently (Fall 2011) because she wasn't gaining much, and then she even lost some weight.  She wasn't even in the 1 percentile on the growth chart.  Makenna isn't sickly, which we are grateful for, just really, little...petite.  Makenna is/was so little but has always had lots and lots of energy!  I don't know where she gets all her energy because she doesn't eat that much!  (Well, I do know she does have an active gene from her daddy that she inherited.  Dave was sooooo active as a kid!)  

Makenna and I went on regular visits to the doctor to check on her weight.  Our doctor wanted Makenna to be on Pediasure and also Nesquick with whole milk to encourage her drinking and getting in some calories.  We made several attempts to have her gain more weight with suggestions from our doctor.  Feeding times, specific foods, trying lots of different things and ways to get her to eat, etc..it was a little stressful.  It became a time consuming job, trying to get Makenna to eat.  She was so skinny! (Still is, really.)  I felt like a bad mom, and that it was my fault she was so little.  Force feeding would probably be counter productive, right?  And then finally the doctor said to give her whatever she would eat, preferably high calorie things...didn't matter what.  Doughnuts, egg nog, ice cream, chocolate, eggs, guacamole, cheese, peanut butter...anything she would eat and anything loaded with calories!  Anyways, with that background....

One day Makenna spied a can of black beans and pulled it out of the pantry.  She seemed to want them, so I opened them up and gave her a few warmed up.  She loved them!  I thought it was funny and cute.  She could eat anything she wanted,  and chose beans.  We'll take it!  (She also really liked fruit, like grapes, which are not loaded with calories, but very healthy.)  She does like beans...I now have proof to show her doctor she ate!