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Keep it simple, moms

Posted Aug 25, 2011 by Courtney Cairns Pastor

Updated Aug 25, 2011 at 03:50 PM

We have a great pediatrician.

Yes, we. Even though my son is the one who gets the exams (and the shots!), I walk away from our appointments feeling better. I can read all I want about child development and illnesses, but nothing is more reassuring than having a doctor who knows your child there, in person, to answer whatever is nagging at you.

Mostly what I ask involves me trying to gauge my panic level. He’s not eating/sleeping/pooping … how worried should I be?

Mostly the answers involve: relax, it’s normal behavior.

Which doesn’t mean the doctor dismisses my concerns. If he did that, I would have found another practice several appointments ago. But he has a way of giving perspective and offering practical advice that makes me wonder sometimes if I am making parenting much more complicated than it needs to be.

I came to my son’s 2-year-old well-child appointment this week with my list of questions. Our main issues right now involve sleeping (not enough) and eating (not enough), though no one could say that Nate is suffering from either. He’s plenty active, and his weight is in the 50th percentile. So something is working.

The pediatrician listened and sympathized and then gave his advice. On the sleeping – put him back in bed when he climbs out. On the eating – don’t let him fill up with milk, give a multivitamin to fill in the gaps and continue to put healthy choices in front of him. And if he is being completely stubborn? It’s OK for him to feel hungry if he rejects his dinner.

Oh.

I can do that.

I’ve been reading books, posting on message boards and reading blogs, filled with tips and gimmicks to try. I bought “lunch punches” to cut out funny sandwich shapes, hoping it would entice my son to take a bite. I tried shaving zucchini into ribbons (he called them snakes) and turning it into patties (he ate them one night and never touched them again) to no avail.

I debated Cry It Out vs. Sleep Lady Shuffle with my husband and the pros and cons of both, experimented with earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, crib, no crib and special stuffed animals.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these attempts. For some kids, a little change might be just what they need to nudge them were we need/want them to be. But before I get so far down the road of creative foods or sleep strategies, I need to first start with the obvious. I enjoyed my shredded zucchini cakes, after all, but maybe the bigger issue is that Nate had so much whole milk that he wasn’t even hungry.

I felt better when we left the pediatrician’s office. I didn’t have a plan to follow, just common-sense parenting that should be obvious but easy to overlook.

Sometimes getting back to the basics is just what the doctor ordered.