Q. My baby is doing great. I took her to her 9 month appointment and, just as with my son, the doctor is worried about her weight. She is 15 pounds, 6 ounces and 27 3/8 inches long. Her doctor wants me to put mayonnaise in her baby food to fatten her up or feed her avocados. Should I follow this advice?

Q. “I need the simplest of simple balanced meal ideas for my one-year-old daughter. My husband and I both are somewhat overweight and come from overweight parents and we’d like to do all we can to keep this from being our little girl’s problem, too!”

Q. “How many calories does a one-year-old need? Mine seems to get through most days with almost none!”

Q. I am an experienced nursing mother and am having problems with my fourth baby who is six weeks old. He seems to be what is commonly called “colicky.” He cries a lot and pulls up his little feet after eating like his tummy is hurting him. He is ONLY receiving breastmilk and I just can’t figure out what the problem is.

Q. Today my 5-month-old son’s doctor told me I need to start supplementing with formula because my son is just not gaining weight. He was 7 pounds, 14 ounces at birth and now is only 13 pounds, 2 ounces. The doctor had me pump while I was there and I could only get three ounces. He says I’m just not producing enough. He said formula is just as good, and I can do both. Is this true?

Q. We took our 9 month old in for his well baby check. When they weighed him today he was 15 pounds, 5 ounces. At his six month appointment he was 15 pounds, 4 ounces! I have only given him cereal a couple of times and no other solids. I normally wait until they are 9 months to start solids, and that worked well with my older children. Now I am wondering if I should have started him sooner. I am very concerned now, since he went down from being in the 45th percentile at 6 months to 5th percentile now. I know that each baby is different, and I try not to put too much stock in the percentiles, but this seems like it is quite a drop and a gain of only one ounce in three months is very low.

I can understand your frustration. As we learn more and more about our bodies, it becomes increasingly difficult to sort out facts from fallacies. Let me put things in perspective for you.

The optimal way for children and adults to eat is to center their diet around fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains. Legumes, which include all the dried beans such as garbanzos, lentils, lima beans, split peas, kidney beans, and so on, are the highest source of vegetable protein. All the fresh vegetables and fruits give you vitamins and minerals. The grains, such as brown rice, millet, buckwheat and amaranth provide protein and fiber.

Thanks in part to lobbying efforts on behalf of dairy farmers, Americans feel that it’s necessary to drink milk throughout their lives.

No, definitely not! In fact, in my opinion, butter may be the worst dairy product of all. It’s nothing but congealed grease.

I believe that eating cheese is worse than eating candy. I view it as the ultimate junk food. In fact, so-called “low-fat” cheese has one of the highest fat contents of anything in the supermarket!

Ice cream has all the bad properties we’ve talked about in the other dairy products. It’s full of fats and contains all the pollutants found in milk.

No. I consider hot dogs to be some of the scariest food around. They can be stuffed with unpleasant things, like chicken lips, pig’s ears and cow’s innards.

Where do I start? Most often, hamburgers are made from less marketable cuts of meat which are high in fat. 

In America, chickens are raised in “poultry factories” where they are crowded together without enough space to move.

Junk foods aren’t just candy, potato chips, cookies, crackers, soft drinks and French fries.

Artificial sweeteners were invented for one specific purpose: to provide sugar taste for medically supervised diabetics and dieters.

You don’t have to refuse your child a piece of candy – if it doesn’t bother you that he’s eating pure sugar at best and greasy sugar at worst. Candy provides virtually no nutritional benefits. I can’t see that it has any place in a child’s diet.

Organic fruits and vegetables are raised by healthier methods, using no chemical and pesticides.

Tofu is a highly versatile soybean product, rich in protein and calcium.