two questions please

Question
1.  What are some healthy fat foods I can give my 2 year old daughter?

2.  When my 2 yr old daughter was a baby she had severe reflux.  We were instructed to give her cereal in her bottle to keep the formula down.  We did this until she was 10 months old and needless to say she was an overweight baby because of this.  She has thinned out now (mostly) but I am concerned about the fat cells we created in her during infancy.  They are there for life now, right?  So is she more likey to be fat because of these fat cells we created?

P.S.  My daughter is predisposed to being overweight as my husband's entire family is morbidly obese.  He mostly has it under control but the genes my daughter has inherited are terrible.  I have also battled it all my life.

Answer
With a 2 year old your best bet is to visit your pediatrician and voice your concerns.  I would ask your doctor to refer you to a dietitian.  Find one in your area that specializes in children's nutrition.  

There is a lot of controversy about fat cells.  But what I have been taught is that there are a couple of times during your life when you can increase the number of fat cells that you have and they are during infancy and adolescence. Once developed, you cannot decrease the number of fat cells in your body only the size.  That does not mean your daughter WILL be fat because living a healthy lifestyle can help keep down the size of the fat cells.  Since she is predisposed to obesity it is important to teach her good eating habits and activity habits right from the start.  YOU and your husband act as role models so keep that in mind.  Whatever YOU have in the house is what she will eat.  Children at this age can be very picky about what they eat but that doesn't mean you cannot introduce healthy foods.  If they don't like a vegetable at first introduce it again down the line.  As long as she doesn't have any food allergies or intolerances, the foods that are healthy for adults are healthy for children.  You just need to feed her child size portions.  Also you want to always be careful about foods that children of that age can choke on such as grapes, nuts, etc...  
Hope some of that may help.  If you are really concerned you really do need to see the prediatrician.  They will plot her age and size on a growth chart to tell you if she is in the normal range.  
Kim Tessmer, RD LD
www.Nutrifocus.net  

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