Alternate Title: Watch the pregnant girl go completely irrational

At Alliclaus' 12-month well-baby checkup, she was in the 15th percentile for weight. This was no big shock since she has been on the very wee side pretty much since two weeks after her birth. So imagine our surprise at her 15-month checkup (scheduled because of her very large head - we must ALWAYS measure the head) when she was in the 57th percentile for weight. And because there cannot possibly be a checkup where nothing is wrong and everything is fine, my pediatrician wanted to weigh her again in a month to make sure that the weight increase was an isolated incident.

So today I compiled my list of questions and put Alliclaus into the very hot car in order to drive halfway across town to find out that, no, it wasn't an isolated incident and that instead she is now in the 71st percentile for weight. This, combined with the fact that she has been sleeping WAY a lot lately (like 15-17 hours a day) and that she has been incredibly thirsty says to me that she is going through a growth spurt. To my pediatrician? Something could be wrong with her thyroid or kidney function. So, heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to the lab we go. I'm going to see if Andrés can take her Wednesday morning while I'm at work.

But that's not really the point where I got completely irrational. That happened when my pediatrician said that he thought that this was probably just childhood weight gain.

"Like normal weight gain, or like childhood obesity weight gain?"

"Well, we need to be aware of childhood obesity, because her mom's overweight, her pediatrician is overweight, her nurse is overweight. It's a societal issue."

Now I know that he called both himself and his nurse out on their weight. I also recognize that it is a FACT that I am overweight. But, seriously? WTF? My daughter's doctor called out my weight!

This is completely an irrational thing about which to be upset. But I have the crazy hormones and I am unable to just let it slide. Also? I don't know how you prevent a child from being obese while also encouraging a healthy body image and this is possibly my worst parenting fear realized. (To clarify, a fat child is not my worst fear. The struggle for healthy body image is.)

My sister-in-law is struggling with a young daughter who is significantly overweight and I have been totally judgmental about it in the past because I hear my niece (who is only six) tell people that she's too heavy. And I realize now that it must be very hard to limit a child's food intake without them realizing it.

Luckily, Alliclaus is still very little and hopefully we'll be able to limit her food intake without any psychological impact on her. I think I have a better idea now of how much food she should really be getting and now my main concern is just that we will have a great deal of crying at the end of mealtimes, but hopefully that will be short-lived.

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On a completely unrelated note, I have a suggestion for my husband's new store. If your ladies' restroom is massively huge and you have nothing but empty wall space, you should totally check out changing tables. They're all the rage, I hear.