DIET REVIEW PLUS A FEW QUESTIONS ANSWERED

We were at KK this morning for Jonathan's yearly diet review.

Weight:  Estimated 23kg (same as last year)
Height:  Estimated 129cm (up by 3cm from last year)

The good news, he's growing and still having enough intake of more than 2 litres of fluid a day.  Just need to boost his weight by adding milk powder.

Last year, it was recommended that he takes 6.5 or 7 scoops of powdered Isomil Soy Milk. (My journal post HERE). But each time I do that, he has watery stools.  So that option was out.

In today's meeting, dietitian PKY recommended that since we were trying to increase the 0.5 or 1 scoop of milk powder in the feed, why not we just put in a 180ml of water with 3 scoops as an extra feed.

I've done this before whenever Jonathan wakes up in the middle of the night asking for milk.  So this method of increasing his milk powder will be either done during the "in-between" water feed (4 water feeds, one to be taken out with 3 scoops of milk) or as an extra milk feed, from 5 feeds a day to 6.  If I choose the latter, that means this milk feed will be done around 1-2am.  This is fine by me since I sleep late anyway.  Moreover, using this method doesn't cause him to have diarrhoea.

Dietitian is happy that I've started using rice water into Jonathan's feed (as I've mentioned HERE.)  She said that rice water actually helps the milk to settle down because of the carbohydrate.

I had questions for her today, questions that came about while chatting with friends about diets for our children.

1. Is 300ml per feed of milk too much for Jonathan?  Including water for flushing, it comes up to about 330ml.  This amount is more than a cup.
   Answer:  So long as his kidneys are ok and he doesn't retch or reflux, this is not a real problem.  A good way to know is how many diapers he changes a day.  For Jonathan, it's about 6 pieces.  So that's quite normal.
2. A friend suggested that I cook vegetables inside the rice water to give Jonathan more nutrients.
   Answer:  Some minerals or vitamins in vegetables like magnesium do not leak out into the water when you boil them.  So in order to get these minerals/vitamins, you actually have to eat the vegetable itself.  So it's only half truth that when you cook vegetables, you get ALL the nutrients from them.  She recommended a good vitamin from Centrum.  It's for adults but for Jonathan, I have to break the table into 2, dissolve half of it in water and give it to him daily.
   I'm not prepared to give him daily doses.  So if I decide to try, it will just probably be once a week first.
   
3. Brown rice water is good.  Is it true?
   Answer:  Yes, it can be better than normal rice water as it gives more Vitamin B.
   (Note:  I think I'll just mix a little of brown rice with the normal white rice).
   
4. Health store actually recommends pro biotic powder.  They say it helps boost immune system.
   Answer:  While pro biotics can be good for the body, it actually helps only when a person has tummy problems like diarrhoea.  It is good bacteria for the intestine but not something that will boost up the immune system.

We chatted about other things that I currently can't remember.  On the whole, it was good to catch up on the diet plan.  Next appointment is one year later.  And hopefully by then, Jonathan would have gained a little more weight.

Thanks for dropping by and sharing my thoughts :)  God bless!