Am I the only one with a tall and super skinny baby????

[CBall]

Hi everyone. Just wanting to know if I'm alone out here. My dd is 6 months, breastfed with a little bit of solids, and VERY active. She's in the 97th for height and something like the 37th for weight. Everywhere we go people always say "how skinny she is." "Are you feeding her enough?" "Maybe you should start feeding her solids 3 times a day." I don't want to do that, up until very recently solid food was just a game to her. She just barely figured out that it had a purpose. We nurse on demand and she doesn't seem unhappy.

I think that in my head I know she's fine. It's just that between the family pressure and the image that everybody has of chunky breastfed babies; I'm starting to wonder if my baby is the only one. So does anybody else have slender babies?

[71newmom]

My baby is similar. He's 6.5 months, 80th % for height, 40 for weight. He's EBF, and isn't really interested in solids, although I've tried a variety. He just wants to nurse. I get worried too, but I know he's fine. My main worry right now is that he will get skinnier by not eating enough solids, combined with being more active and crawling soon. But you are definitely not alone! Oh, and my 3 yr old son is the same - tall and very slim. 42% for weight, but because of his height, his BMI falls into the underweight category. I keep hoping he will eat more, but he just isn't a big eater, and I think for him, this is normal.

[akind1]

DS is (well, will be on Sunday) 7 months. He is a lean baby at 16 lbs 5 oz, but he's healthy, IMO. He plays with solids mostly. I get the "need to add solids to fatten him up" thing sometimes, but not too often, it is just obvious that he is happy as he his, and meeting his milestones. I am not sure where he is for height, as I haven't done that in a while, but he is actually probably midline for that - 50-60th %.

I think you'd know if something were off; if he seems content with the food he's getting, then I'd say you are doing fine.

[Knitting Mama]

My daughter is short and skinny-- 20th percentile for height and weight. I constantly get asked about her eating, or if she was a preemie. I just tell people that I was a small baby too.

[MsVyky]

Us too. DD is almost 8 months, a shade under 17 pounds and a whopping 30"
(so 30th percentile for weight, and >97%ile for length)

[ishyfishie]

Dd1 has always been tall and skinny--always very top of the charts tall, but stayed around 33rd percentile for weight after starting solids (before that she was between 50th and 75th for weight, and around age 2 moved back to that area). Everyone always exclaimed over how tall she was for her age, and she never had any "chub" on her. It's just the way she's built! When she dropped those percentiles around 9 months, the nurse practitioner at our ped's office told me "Breastmilk just isn't fatty enough; put butter on all of her food." I knew better and made sure we focused on nursing before offering food, limiting distractions when she went through phases of not wanting to nurse because she was busy looking around, etc. She followed her own curve, even if it fluctuated around percentiles! On the "weight-for-height" chart, she's pretty much off the bottom, even when her weight is closer to 75th percentile! She eats like a horse a lot of the time and nursed until 2.5. I can't change her body type!

Dd2, on the other hand, is very tall but has been 1-1.5 lbs over dd1's weight from birth to 4 months, which puts her higher up on the weight charts too. It's funny now to see that a single pound makes such a huge difference in what percentile she's in!

[Blueone]

My son is 19 pounds, maybe 20 now at 11 months and in 18-24 and some 2T clothing (mainly rompers and overalls). He seems to have my long waist and short legs. But I noticed his legs have been growing lately.

[sky_and_lavender]

My baby is fairly tall and skinny, too. For a while she was in the 85th percentile for height and 15th percentile for weight. On the regular (non-breastfed) chart, for weight she was in the 1st percentile at 9 months. On the breastfed baby chart, she is around the 7th percentile. In the Sears Baby Book, he mentions body type and "banana babies" as a normal variation.

The chart is just one tool of many. When a baby looks healthy and is somewhere in the ballbark with milestones, and when intuition says all is well, I think there's not any reason to work.

Like a pp, I just tell people that my husband and I were small babies, too. I'm still quite petite and have several size-small people in my family and my husband's family runs small, too.

[Knitting Mama]

Oh man, I shouldn't have looked at that chart. Unless I did the conversion wrong, my 10.5 week old is like 2nd percentile for height and weight. I liked the 20th I got at the pedi better.

[cristeen]

Me too. My little guy is deceptively skinny. Most people don't realize how skinny he is until they pick him up. But he's taller than most 18 mo at almost 9 mos.

On those charts linked above, he's above the 97th for height, and right around the 50th for weight. But because he's so tall for his weight, you can actually visually count every rib.

People are shocked when they hear that my 9 mo is still wearing NB (0-3 mo) tees. He's outgrown 12 mo pants in the leg, but they fall off even over his CDs.

Luckily though, nobody has given me a hard time about it. Particularly anyone who has met my DH... it's just in his genetics to be tall and skinny.

I'd tell the busybodies to stick their noses elsewhere, TBH. The last thing you need to be doing is stressing out over whether your kid is "too skinny" - people are never happy because they'd be stressing you if he was "too chubby" just the same.

[candelaria80]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama

My daughter is short and skinny-- 20th percentile for height and weight. I constantly get asked about her eating, or if she was a preemie. I just tell people that I was a small baby too.

Mine too! 9th percentile in weight, 13th in height...31st in head circumference! HA!
We get the same comments, "she needs to start eating 'real' food" or a variation of this. I just smile and nod. I think it is so funny, what could I feed her that would be more packed with fat and calories then BM? Ice cream?

[Knitting Mama]

50th percentile for head here. DH and I both have big heads.

[Blessed_Mom]

My DD is 5th for weight, 50th for height and 75th for head circ

[MsVyky]

My kid has a pinhead to go with her banana body. <5th percentile there too. LOL (but my head was little, my sister's head is little and my mum's whole family has little heads)

[Rose-Roget]

Dd is 7 months and weighs about 14-1/2 pounds. She's in the 90th percentile for length and 15th (ish) for weight. I was worried for a little while early on, but now it just seems to be her growth pattern. People do like to comment on how thin she is, though! Wish I had those genes!

[star*mora]

another mama with a skinny baby - ds2 is almost 9mths and is 15lbs and 29 inches.

ds1 was also long and skinny and ribs showing. my boys' dr doesn't use the charts at all and said they are proportionate and somebody has to have skinny babies!

[CassnBeth]

Solid food doesn't solve this issue at all; I don't know why people keep saying that. My girl just turned one year old and is, maybe, 18 pounds and 30 inches tall. And she loves her some solid foods, yes indeedy, but I can't keep pants on her. I am very very grateful that leggings are "in" right now.

[dogretro]

Beth, don't forget about elastic-waisted skirts!

I, for one, would 100% rather have a tall skinny baby than a chunk-a-monk baby. I am not a big fan of fat babies at all. All people everywhere have different body shapes & it makes sense for that to transfer to babies as well.

[candelaria80]

Originally Posted by dogretro

Beth, don't forget about elastic-waisted skirts!

I, for one, would 100% rather have a tall skinny baby than a chunk-a-monk baby. I am not a big fan of fat babies at all. All people everywhere have different body shapes & it makes sense for that to transfer to babies as well.

Ahh...I think "chunk-a-monk" babies are adorable! Not what I was given, but I think all those little rolls and dimples are sweet!

[sesaymoon]

My daughter H is about 18lbs at 14m.  She is very active & eats good. When she was born she weighed 4lbs 8oz. The birth center we had gone to had never delivered such a small baby so we were sent to the hospital the following day.  They really made me feel like I had done something wrong.  At the hospital a few tests were done and it was determined H had a true knot in her umbilical cord which we saw at time of birth. And I had asked could this cause a smaller baby? Their answer was no.  I didn't think that sounded right but I am no expect. The nurses at the hospital that helped me oddly enough had small babies too and one thing in common with me was they too had a miscarriage prior to having a small baby. I don't know the cause of H being so small but I feel like when we see the ped at the birth center she has expressed a major concern with H's weight. So much so that I want to find a new ped. For gosh sakes they can't even remember my daughter's name after all this time. Needless to say it doesn't make me feel good to know someone out there thinks I'm not doing a good job feeding my baby when this girl eats all the time. She is happy, healthy & skinny. But I can't help but be bothered by the ped.