One thing I love about our pediatrician's office? They are really working to integrate dieticians and behavioral health specialists into primary care. So, when we had the kids' annual exams yesterday we saw our doctor, the nurse for shots, the dietician, and the behavioral health specialist. The behavioral health specialist did a screening for kids to make sure that development is happening within normal bounds and to help find out if kids need services before they get into school. Cate's doing fine -- although we're giving her 6 months to work on her "r" sounds before thinking about speech. She's still within normal bounds for working on that letter apparently but she sometimes sounds like she's from south Jersey.

The interesting part was the visit from the dietician. I requested it to try to help Christopher make healthy food choices. I don't think he's fat, but he's not skinny either. I've noticed he gets winded more easily at soccer this summer. He definately eats more than he really needs -- usually he eats mostly healthy foods but even eating healthy foods can become unhealthy if you're eating too much of them.

We've been working on looking at food choices within the food pyramid at home, but the dietician was really helpful. She did a good job of explaining "serving size" although Christopher was not at all happy about finding out that a bagel (his favorite part of lunch) is worth 4 servings of grains when he only is allotted 5 for the day. It's been tough at times to implement the serving size recommendations, but I feel like we're making progress. He doesn't like the fact that one 4 oz juice is his only juice allottment, but he's been making some great choices, too -- like half a bagel at lunch, or half of a granola bar instead of the whole thing, or choosing to bypass the juice box in his lunch. And the best part is that he is making the choice -- it's not me telling him "no" -- I just tell him how many servings various foods are worth and then he makes the choice of whether it's a smart idea. I think overall, that dietician's talk may be very beneficial.