Parents of teeny kids

[Cumberland]

At DDs one year check today she was less than 3% on weight for the growth charts. I usually ignore that stuff, but probably bc both have always been normal. She is 12 months old and 16 pounds. I was really looking forward to turning around her carseat, but that wont happen for a while.

I am kind of paranoid now about feeding her. Some meals she will eat an amazing amount of food, then others she is not interested at all. I am still nursing but giving her milk in a sippy. She will drink out of it, but she doesnt really drink that much at any one time. Saturday she ate two small bowls of pasta, and then today she spit it out three or four times and I couldnt get any in her at all.

DD1 will pretty much eat anything -she has been heard saying 'more op-o-pus please' when we are out for sushi- so this is a new one to me.

[DCJenn]

Nikolai was below the curves for both height and weight when we got him at 13 months. He then spent the next year between 5 and 10 % on the charts. (of course the caveat here is that these are American charts and he's not an American kid) Since they had hi on 'real' food for months before we got him we didn't really have to worry too much about the transition to textures, etc.

We basically let him eat whenever he's hungry and I'm still giving him whole milk, butter, cheese etc. He's 'all the way' to the 25th percentile now, with concentrated efforts on calorie dense yet nutritous foods.

We gave him lots of eggs, mashed potatos and sweet potatos, rice, whole wheat pasta smothered in butter and cheese...

He's not a big fan of things like hot dogs but he used to like the spinach veggie nuggets (can't find them here) and the chik'n veggie nuggets. Yogurt and kefir are also huge in this house- I buy the kid yogurts- the organic ones that don't use HFCS (High fructose corn syrup). He'll eat whole wheat eggos smothered in butter and he loves toast with honey. oh- the kid LOVES guacamole. LOVES it and let's face it- that stuff is fattening!

Jenn

[JaneDoe]

My ds in in the 3% too. Up until his 12 month well-child check-up, he was in the 15% for weight. His doctor is having us return at 15 months for a weight check. Ds is a pickier eater than my dd. The doctor told us to feed him more starchy foods and to add cream and butter to his diet. The doctor said he's not that concerned but does want to see ds back sooner to make sure he's doing okay. Ds is an otherwise healthy boy.

My dd has always followed the 20% for weight. She's a great eater. She even likes pesto pasta and raw onion! I know how you feel about focusing on what the kids eat. It's hard not to.

[migirl]

I think I mentioned this in another thread somewhere, but feeding DS is the #1 biggest stress in my life right now. He's a super, super picky eater. The biggest challenge we face is that he's very visual about how his food should look, so (1) if it's something he hasn't seen before, he refuses to even try it and just throws it on the floor and (2) if it's in a different shape or form than he's used to (i.e., a slice of cheese rather than string cheese) he refuses to eat it. It's the refusal to even try things that just about sends me over the edge.

:banghead:

He's been in the 25th-percentile for weight pretty consistently, so I try to focus on the fact that he is at least growing and (as far as I can tell) healthy. I'm still nursing too (2x-day), partly because he doesn't like cow's milk. Anyway, mealtimes are a HUGE challenge here. Like Jenn said, try to do foods that are high-calorie, high-fat (all-beef, kosher hot dogs are a big hit here). BUT, like your DD#2, one day he'll eat an entire hot dog and then the next he'll want nothing to do with it. I think that's pretty typical toddler behavior, so other than getting really frustrated about it I wouldn't worry about it too much.

As long as she's consistently growing and is healthy, I think the actual numbers shouldn't worry you too much.

[houseelf]

Yes, yes, yes. I have BTDT. DS started out in the 40th percentile at birth and then proceeded to fall behind at every stage until 18 months, when he "fell off" the chart all together. He then stayed off the charts until he was five years old when he came back to the 1st percentile.
At one point during this time frame, his growth was more representative of a child an entire year behind his age.

I would LOVE to tell you that I was all cool, calm, and collected and didn't worry one little bit about this, but you all know me too well. I felt enormous anxiety because I breast fed, which continually prompted me to wonder whether I was producing enough milk, and DS was a super picky eater. He survived on Cheerios and spit for a couple of years. I took so much of this as some sort of reflection that I was not providing him with enough variety of food or some other silliness.

We took him to the local Children's hospital where he underwent a battery of tests. Basically, they ruled out everything, but did find that the growth plates in his wrists were still open at a level that was more representative of a child one year behind his age, meaning he still had ample ability to grow.

After extensively questioning both sides of the family, I learned that my husband was the kid that grew four inches after he went to college and was always the slowest kid to grow. (Um, thanks MIL, this might have been nice to know before I went into a panic!!)

At around 6, this vast growth difference between kids begins to level out, at least a bit. DS is still super thin and somewhat shorter than other kids. However, I'm thrilled to say that he is in the tenth percentile now.

This is probably a bit sexist, but height/weight in a boy child does concern me more because so much of the social hierarchy at this age is sports based. So far, this hasn't been an issue at all because his smaller stature becomes even less of a factor when his peer group is considered. DS attends school with many kids of Asian descent, making him blend in better.

So really, I haven't... like.... obsessed over this issue or anything. Still, I'm glad that I did have him worked up, just in case. Early detection is your best bet to stave off the effects of hormone deficiencies, diabetes, etc. The great irony of all of this is that Kris used to kind of blow off my concerns. Now her youngest son Aidan is off the charts too and it kind of freaks her out and I'm like, yeah, this too shall pass. Karma is a bitch, baby.

So, I hope that you feel better than I did about this sort of thing.

Kelly

[PrincessFiona]

Kelly,

If only you could have gotten Cade to play peaball, your problems would have been solved :>



We have the same issue with Aidan. He has always eaten like a little bird...from day 1. He is 3 1/2 and weighs a whopping 27 pounds. Our 12 month old "preemie" weighs in at 21 pounds...and size 2T are too big for him. People are usually shocked when they find out he isn't 2.....

Otherwise, he's healthy though.....

Kris

[migirl]

The biggest issue is not where they are on the growth chart, but that they maintain their own curve. Prior to this visit, where has she been on the growth curve?

This is what I meant to say, but didn't very well.

Yup, Super Baby Food is the book I have mentioned before.

My cousin's daughter did the same. 16 pounds around a year sounds familiar. She did a bunch of testing as well, all negative. Her daughter is just a waif and both of her boys roly poly babies and then "average" sized kids. :huh: I know it was very concerning for her.

My kids have been on the smaller side but not the same issue. I think the Stoneyfield Farm Yo Baby is a great whole milk yogurt for them.

migirl -- Anna is a picky eater. I try not to react much and keep offering the same stuff, every night (offer what we are eating). I was amazed that she ate salmon the other night. The difference? The neighbor caught it and shared with us. Salmon is an extreme example. She usually won't eat sweet potatoes and just scrapes the butter and maple syrup off carefully avoiding a whiff of what is underneath.

[diggitydot]

Our middle child, Sydney, has always been on the REALLY small side. At 7, she's 44 lbs and is mistaken as a 4 year old. (She just recently outgrew her 4T clothes. )

When she was much younger our family physician kept a good eye on her, but wasn't overly concerned because she grew and hit all of her developmental milestones on time or early. The only thing he ever did was have us put her on a high calorie diet and give her whole milk. (Gag me.) Some people are just naturally tiny, and she's one of them.

Syd's a picky eater, too. She always has been. She also does that whole thing where she eats very little for a week and then is ravenous for a couple weeks. It's kind of odd, but she's healthy so I don't worry. I'm also the only one buying groceries for our family so we don't have crapola in the house, anymore. If it isn't in the house, she can't eat it instead of something healthier and more nutrient rich.