3 Year Appointment

Weight: 35 lbs

Height:  37.5 inches
Clothes size: 4T
Shoe size: 8.5/9
Diaper size: Pull Ups 4T/5T

So our little chunker gained 6 lbs in a year compared to the average growth of 4 lbs from age 2 to 3. What a shocker considering he’s such a picky eater. His Dr. wasn’t concerned with the growth but did say we need to work on his fruit and vegetable intake. But feeding Mr. Nathan continues to be a struggle and unfortunately she didn’t give us much advice on how to get him to try new foods.

Not much has changed from last year in terms of what he’ll eat. Breakfast:  waffles, pancakes, grits, oatmeal,  or toast. We’ve been able to get him to try eggs but he gets extra feisty after a couple of bites. If we’re lucky we can get him to eat a few pieces of sausage, but again, after a few bites he’s over it. He won’t touch bacon with a 10 foot pole and he’s iffy with muffins. Lunch: peanut butter sandwich. Dinner: yogurt, cream of broccoli soup or spaghettios. On a good night he’ll eat the meatballs in the spaghettios, but only if they’re cut up into tiny pieces. Sometimes he’ll eat a few bites of corn, that’s if he even stops clinching his mouth to allow us to get a kernel in his mouth. Snacks: cheerios, applesauce, squeezable fruit & vegetables.  

What we deal with on a daily basis

Of course if we’d let him he’d eat all the junk food in the world (M&M’s, cookies, Cheez Its, french fries, donuts, cinnamon rolls, nachos, chips) but trying to get him to test bananas, grapes, apples, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets, broccoli and corn has been painful.  

 

Although his ears looked good upon examination Nate didn’t respond at all when the Dr. asked him questions. She said that he should be talking much more than he is so she asked us to observe him for a couple of weeks and give her a report and then bring him back in 6 months for a hearing test. Now I had a few concerns since Nate just gives me a blank stare when I ask him questions that I know he should know. But I thought he was just being stubborn and of course with J’s speech delay he doesn’t have the best example so I never considered a hearing loss. When I mentioned this to Carlene she did an experiment and asked him with a regular tone to point to his eyes and nose. Nothing. But then she whispered “Elmo” and he lit up and said Elmo. And over the last week I’ve noticed a huge improvement in his vocabulary so I think he hears what he wants to hear and responds when he wants to respond. Of course it doesn’t hurt to get his hearing tested in 6 months just to be sure.

Developmentally, here's what Nate is up to these days:

Runs and jumps easily

Walks up stairs unassisted

Starting to wash and dry hands on his own

Uses spoon/fork well and feeds self (well only for breakfast and lunch; for some reason he refuses to feed himself at dinner)

Able to undress himself and helps put on his clothes and jacket

Speaks in two, sometimes 3 word sentences

Able to put together simple puzzles

Can remember simple rhymes or lyrics (he loves to sing)

Uses "please" and "thank you"

Names colors & shapes