As a mom of two underweight kids,
I am so used to my doctor telling me all of the healthy and fatty foods that
will help them gain weight, not lose it. However, a mom in Colombia has the
opposite problem.
Eunice Fandino's 8-month-old son, Santiago, weighs 44 pounds,
more than twice the median weight of babies his age. Fandino realized that her
son might have a weight problem when the fat folds on his body limited his
mobility. It was then that she decided to write to the Chubby Hearts Foundation
asking for help.
"I'm worried
about his obesity," Fandino said in an interview with RCN Television.
"I don't want him to continue like this."
Now the Foundation
has transported Santiago and his mother to Bogota for evaluation by medical
professionals.
While I understand
that Fandino is worried, I'm wondering why it took her so long to seek medical
attention for her son. No offense to him, but just looking at him, you can tell
that he is overweight. It doesn't take much to tell that he might have a
medical problem that needs to be addressed. Although Fandino didn't seek
medical attention right away, she did know that she was contributing to the problem, saying that her
"ignorance" led to his weight gain because she fed him milk or food
every time that he cried. Now her ignorance has set him up for possibly a
lifetime of health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.
My daughters didn't
look underweight, yet I took them to their pediatrician and several specialists
for months on end doing test after test to make sure there was no medical
condition that was causing them to gain weight at a slower pace than others. It
was only after all of the tests came back normal that I was able to rest easy.
Had I never taken them to the doctor, I would have never known what needed to be
done to help adjust their diet to help them gain weight.
Now that Fandino has gotten medical advice from
a professional, I hope that her son is weaned from formula and has a diet that
consists of fruits and vegetables like they are suggesting. And I hope that she
sticks to it. It's our jobs as parents to help keep our children out of
trouble, not contribute to it. We all know that parenting is tough. Babies cry
-- sometimes a lot. But there is relief knowing that it will only last for a
short time in the grand scheme of things. We shouldn't let our insecurities
(that might hurt our children in the long run) get in the way.
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