Since most of the MDC moms do not take growth charts very seriously, how do you tell when your child is too thin? My son is in the 1%. Right now he is 31 mos, not sure how tall, but he is as tall as my friend's 3 yo, who is avg. and right now he weighs around 22-23 lbs. The doc has referred us to a nutritionist, which I am having a bear of a time trying to get an appointment. They messed up our bloodwork weeks ago with the promise they would handle it, but now we have to have it done again.
Weight and height aside, you might say, "maybe he is just small build." My answer is both my DH and I are on the big side, all of his brothers including our twins were much larger/sturdier at this age. You might ask "is he healthy and active?" My answer is: not always. He seems to be sick a LOT. He is sick right now, which has pricked my concern even more - he has diarrhea, and has had it for days and will not eat. He doesn't normally eat very much - some days he will go the whole day eating one bite per meal. I try not to make a big deal over this, not wanting to create a power struggle. But some days I just pull out my hair and think, one day he is just going to fall over because he starved himself to death. Developmentally, he is slightly behind, but I don't see this as a problem, he is progressing verbally. What does concern me is he is still a bit unbalanced physically. He will not jump down from any height, even his mattress which is flat on the floor. He seems to fall a lot, whereas he never did a year ago. Maybe he just grew tall quick and needs to learn to get around on his taller frame? Who knows. Energy wise, he fluctuates.
He is so thin that I can see every bone in his body (except maybe those little ear bones) - I can see his entire pelvis and hip bones and every vertebrae. He is a walking skeleton. Anyone who looked at him without clothes would definitely wonder if he were malnourished. People have commented on it, and that was just looking at him with clothes. I hope the nutritionist can help us. Is there another specialist that treats this sort of problem?
Weight and height aside, you might say, "maybe he is just small build." My answer is both my DH and I are on the big side, all of his brothers including our twins were much larger/sturdier at this age. You might ask "is he healthy and active?" My answer is: not always. He seems to be sick a LOT. He is sick right now, which has pricked my concern even more - he has diarrhea, and has had it for days and will not eat. He doesn't normally eat very much - some days he will go the whole day eating one bite per meal. I try not to make a big deal over this, not wanting to create a power struggle. But some days I just pull out my hair and think, one day he is just going to fall over because he starved himself to death. Developmentally, he is slightly behind, but I don't see this as a problem, he is progressing verbally. What does concern me is he is still a bit unbalanced physically. He will not jump down from any height, even his mattress which is flat on the floor. He seems to fall a lot, whereas he never did a year ago. Maybe he just grew tall quick and needs to learn to get around on his taller frame? Who knows. Energy wise, he fluctuates.
He is so thin that I can see every bone in his body (except maybe those little ear bones) - I can see his entire pelvis and hip bones and every vertebrae. He is a walking skeleton. Anyone who looked at him without clothes would definitely wonder if he were malnourished. People have commented on it, and that was just looking at him with clothes. I hope the nutritionist can help us. Is there another specialist that treats this sort of problem?
