Mateo was due for his kindergarten entrance physical exam and I was worried. Not because of his health: He’s a strong and active little boy. What I worried about was his weight, or more specifically the ratio of his weight to his height and body mass, referred to as his BMI. 

Mateo is not a tall boy. At his last appointment, his height fell just under the fifteenth percentile on the growth chart used by our pediatrician. His weight, however, hovered somewhere around the sixty-fifth percentile. The pediatrician asked me why.

 I confessed I occasionally succumb to the convenience of the McDonald’s drive-through and allow Mateo to eat french fries. But we never drink soda or eat chips.  Our diet is based on fish and chicken, with an ample supply of veggies and fruit. “How about juice?” the doctor asked. When I nodded, he clicked on his pen and scribbled something into his notes. “Mateo should be drinking none.” (more…)

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