Yesterday on the radio I heard a mock ad for some get rich quick scheme, their catch phrase at the end of it was "We make products for people who will buy anything" I laughed and thought of food manufacturers saying the same thing "We make food for people who will eat anything."

Looking at it that way, it's nice to be one of those who won't eat just anything.

Driving through Salt Lake City, we passed a large grain silo, with a pretty picture of wheat on the outside of it. My four year old celiac son who loves factories immediately put it together, and exclaimed with great excitement, "Look! It's a gluten factory!" It took about five minutes for me to stop laughing and marvelling over his way of seeing things.

At IfHI they gave us a little information on maternal/fetal incompatibility. I didn't realize that in a type O mother carrying an A, B or AB child, it is only the secretor children that are negatively affected by it. So my type A son is more likely to be a non-secretor. Though it's still probably close to 50/50, so I won't know until I somehow convince him to spit into the little tube.

I also learned more about the metabolic types, and my 4 year old is such an ectomorph! He's tall enough, but quite skinny and has trouble gaining weight. Ectomorph's developmental focus is on the nervous system and skin, they are thin and have more surface area compared to internal muscle and fat. He is all about experiencing the environment in any way possible. I wonder how pediatric growth charts would differ if they could tell between metabolic types. If it is possible to tell in small children, I don't know, but he's probably about 50% for ectomorphs his age. It's hard to keep up with the endomorphs and mesomorphs though! I also wonder if it's possible to tell in the womb what type they are, he has always loved to move just for the sake of moving and has been dancing from the time he could move. My younger son has always liked comfort a bit more, and would move enough to be comfortable, in contrast he likes to be strong, is a bit more muscular, and likes to exert power on his environment (I would think this is more endomorphic). I suppose pediatric growth charts, being based on averages and statistics, are far from individualized.