little peanuts

[PrincessFiona]

Have any of you dealt with children who are really underweight? Aidan was at the ped yesterday and he was in the 10th percentile for height and fell off of the charts around the -5% or something for weight.....He doesn't 'look' too skinny to me, but we have to go back in four weeks after giving him 'high fat' foods to see if he can pack on some pounds or we'll have to do some testing.

Any experience with this kind of thing? Since he's small the weight seems not to be such a big deal...but he grew taller since our last visit and didn't gain a thing. He has been sick the las few days, but I doubt that would make a huge difference.

He eats, but he is like a little bird....even as a baby he would nurse for a few minutes and then take a break..then nurse again.....I've been just sitting him down at mealtimes and haven't really been giving him too many snacks....but now he is literally walking around with a cookie in each hand everytime I see his hands empty Of course, sugar isn't the answer...but I really want to see him put on some weight.

[Amiens]

Kris,

Brigham is on the lower end of the charts (-3% to 10%), and his pediatrician hasn't ever been too concerned. He is really active and has been following the same curve. The ped said she would get concerned if he "dropped" off of his curve. Brigham is now starting to climb more on his curve, and the doc thinks his metabolism and activity level are starting to catch up to each other. I swear Brigham is only still when he is sleeping- the kid has been in constant motion since he crawled at 5 months.

At 9 months Brigham was -3% for weight and +3% for height; at 12 mos +3% for weight, and +5% for height. At his most recent 18 mos check-up- +5% for weight , and +10% for height. Actually being sick can have an affect on their weight, but once he gets better Aidan should be able to put it back on.

At Brigham's 9 month appt the pediatrician advised us to go home and put butter on everything he eats, and to make sure he got whole milk. Now that Brigham's weight seems to be picking back up, I am not at vigilant about the butter. Other sources of high-fat foods that didn't contain a ton of sugar and were actually good for the little tyke- Whole-Milk Yogurt (made by YoBaby); really any whole milk or full fat dairy products are good; if I made hamburger I wouldn't drain it for Brigham. There is a list of "good fats" that I have some where. I can email it to you if you are interested. Oh Brigham's pediatrician had also recommended PediaSure if Brigham was going to plateau or drop off his curve- it's a high-fat nutritional supplement for kids. Because Brigham was at the drinking milk stage yet, and the doc wanted to wait until he was 12-18 mos to assess him again, we never needed to do it. You can buy it at the grocery store.

I hope this helps!
Crystal

I don't know from personal experience but my cousin has gone through something similar with her daughter. They did some labwork and found nothing wrong. She also felt in her heart that her daughter was fine but just a skinny kid. She is now 5 yo and still very thin but developing and growing appropriately (she is super smart, I think it just all goes to her brain!).
Anyway, they have tried to have some rules about eating without being to strict. She loves vegetables so they tell her she HAS to eat the main course before eating any salads or veggies. Not a typical statement from a parent, huh? And they usually give her full-fat icecream for dessert, try to put dressing or oil on the salad, etc. They do the full fat yogurt too. She will not eat meat so they try to do higher protein fats like cheese.

btw, my cousin's second child is the opposite -- he's a chubby little bunny and was raised with the same as his sister (bf, similar foods, etc). Who knows!

[HeartRN]

Keelin's right about where Crystal's son is percentile wise....she's little. Our ped didn't even blink an eye except to say "she's small" and "How tall is her dad?" (She's very short, too ) She would much rather play than eat, and it really doesn't matter what she's eating. She'd rather hand back a cookie to me so she can run around--(clearly, not a trait she got from her mom! ) I truly wouldn't worry to much about it, as long as his appetite's still good and you're in touch with your ped.

[PrincessFiona]

Thanks for the tips....I think the problem for Aidan too was that he has always been small but suddenly dropped off of the curve. It did make me a little nervous simply because she had to mention some of the things that could be wrong and I haven't been able to stop worrying about them. His head has a very salty sweaty smell and it always has and Thomas has commented on it several times...so I've been obsessing over cystic fibrosis, though I'm sure it is fine. He has no other symptoms.

In any case, I'm going to try the butter and the yobaby. I don't want to give him a ton of sugary snacks because they're bad for his teeth too.

I also don't want to set up bad eating habits that may lead to obesity, etc later on down the road...

kris

I also don't want to set up bad eating habits that may lead to obesity, etc later on down the road...

I swear, I don't own stock in Stonyfield Farms (makers of yobaby) but the great thing about the full-fat yogurt is that you can transition them to mid-grade and then low-fat. My oldest doesn't know the difference. Ditto for the whole milk, if he likes it. And you can cut back on the amount of butter on stuff over time. I think it is harder to phase out the sweets and stuff (if it's anything like TV habits ).
My oldest's first preschool teacher said Ovaltine was great to put in milk -- maybe it's better than straight chocolate or something?
Aidan was an early walker, right? Maybe he's just a busy, busy kid keeping up with those sibs!

I've been thinking about this post and realized that there a few more people I know who have dealt with this. It is frustrating.
The child of a friend turned out to have really bad reflux. Bad enough that she really didn't gain any weight from 12 to 18 months but she is getting back on track.

As to my cousin, she was really stressed by the situation when it was happening (I think it started around 1 yr or a little before that). After the testing showed that everything seemed to be ok, she wondered if she should have done it. With more time and perspective, though, I think she is glad she did because she would have always wondered. Her daughter continued to grow but was/is so small that I think she would have continued to be concerned had they not ruled out a few things.

Oh, and someone else I know tried the chocolate milk trick. Her daughter is smart -- she refused any other kind of milk when she knew that chocolate might be available! Since milk was among her favorite things it was a mixed bag -- more calories but a lot more chocolate milk than they wanted to dispense.

[DCJenn]

Nikolai is tiny- well, most Russian kids are comparitively- but they feed him like 6 times a day. One of the things they feed him is Kefir, which is a yogurt drink-BUT, it's an acquired taste. I like it, but I like plain yogurt, too. It's got all of the other good-for-you parts of yogurt and it's usually made with whole milk. They also give them juice (they call it 'fruit tea') a couple time a day along with regular bottles.

He's up to 17.5 pounds at the last report (11 months)

Jenn