Just Like Daddy

Mac is so much like his daddy it's scary. They obviously look alike, but the similarities go beyond that. Too bad for Mac that he inherited his Daddy's least flattering quality; his cholesterol. Eric has had high cholesterol his entire life (he was put on medication at 16) so we knew that there was a chance that Mac would have it too. His pediatrician said that once he turned 1 we should have blood drawn just to see what his levels showed. After taking him to Texas Children's I got a call from the doctor saying that his total cholesterol was 262, his LDL (bad cholesterol) was 212, and his HDL (good cholesterol) was only 50. In case you don't know, for a healthy ADULT male, total cholesterol should be less than 200, LDLs should be no more than 100, and they want HDLs to be a minimum of 60. So basically, that's not good. Because of this, Mac is going to go back to Texas Children's to be seen in a preventative group for children diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol). Since Mac's cholesterol is hereditary and not due to poor diet it is more difficult to treat. My goal is to keep him off of medication as long as possible, but the truth is, even if Mac ate nothing but veggies everyday, he would still have high cholesterol.
Cholesterol comes from animal fats so we have already switched him off of whole milk (per his doctor's instructions) to 2%. We are also going to become a white meat family and save the red meat for special occasions. I really hate that Mac has this because I know that I can't fix it for him. No matter how healthy he eats it will never resolve itself. My hope is that if I teach him how to eat healthy, but still indulge every once in a while, he will eat that way even when I'm not the one cooking for him.