12 month old nursing almost exclusively, doc threatening FTT - Page 3

[Pandme]

Originally Posted by AislinCarys

I just charted your DD on the WHO charts.

With the weights you provided:

9 months: 16 pounds 4 oz = 7.37 kg - on the 15th percentile
10 months: 16 pounds 10 oz = 7.54 kg - on the 15th percentile
12 months: 16 pounds 14 oz = 7.69 oz - just below 15th percentile (less than 100 grams below)

Honestly, this "dip" is so tiny it may just be a case of your DD having a full bladder/bowel at the time, versus just having eliminated the earlier time.

However, it is totally normally that children drop a bit on the charts, at various times (different times from child to child, so not necessarily following the percentile!) once the child gets more mobile, around 8 months - 2 years. Usually, according to the dr we saw (very mainstream), they catch up over time, and she recommended that we weigh DD in about 1-3 months if WE were worried (she wasn't).

DD was tiny all along, below 3rd percentile for most of her first year. Her "dip" happened around 18-20 months (by which time she was up close to the 15th percentile) , she even lost a little bit of weight. She gained it back and is now in the middle between 15th and 50th percentile.

Ooooh, thank you for charting her! I did too got the same basic thing you did but with her always needing attention it's annoying to have to do conversion then plot it, etc.

Someone asked about my son's growth. He's going to turn 4 in December, and weighs 33 pounds naked. He's about 38.5 inches tall. According the charts the doc uses, he's about 10th for weight, 25th height. (And 90-something head, lol, just like his daddy). My husband had the exact same growth. In fact, Harrison was 1 pound heavier than my husband was at 9 months and my husband was formula fed. I don't worry about my son. He eats pretty well, and he's pretty comparably sized to his preschool classmates (even those older than him). He can wear 3t and 4T shirts, but is 3T in pants. Other than people constantly mistaking him for a girl because he's pretty and has long, shaggy hair, he's good.

Also, my husband is about 5' 9" now. He was short and skinny in elementary school. This smallness is just not surprising. Also, my brother and sister were always extremely skinny, to the point where they had tests run to make sure it was nothing serious. It wasn't. Just skinniness. Believe me, with age the metabolism slows down!

As for solids, we're plugging along. She eats a bit....tonight she was picking up each lentil and was putting in her mouth but I'm unsure how many she actually ingested. She LOVES playing in food though, she was an absolute mess tonight. She also really enjoys rich tastes, like Alfredo sauce and mashed potatoes. Goat cheese. She's definitely attempting to put more and more foods in her mouth, like Cheerios, bits of crumbled tater tot....anything we are eating. We had our first OT visit the other day and the OT seemed a bit unclear about why her services were necessary. And given that I have done/am doing basically EVERYTHING she suggested, I have to agree.

[Julybug]

My son was bigger at a year (19.5lbs), but he only gained 8oz in 4 MONTHS! I don't think this is unusual. I agree with everyone else who said that the big picture of the child must be taken into account. It seems not much of anyone in my town is happy with the three pediatricians here, but our current ped (the second one we've gone to) wasn't freaked out about my son's slow weight gain, even though he did drop quite a bit in the percentiles. He was average in height for the first several months, and 50th-60th percent on weight, so a good size. On the WHO breastfed baby charts, he was around the 50th for weight and height at 8mo. But at 12mo, he was still the 50th for height, but only the 20th for weight. But he is super active, very engaged with everything and everyone around him, etc. The pediatrician said we should keep an eye on his weight, but that since he kept pace on height, he would probably be fine.

At 14mo, he had gained over 1lb (to about 20lbs 12oz) and 3/4" in 2 months. So he's still on the smaller side - probably around the 15th percentile for weight, 40th for height - but I'm not so worried. He's also starting to eat a lot more solids, although he's still nursing at least 5-7 times per day!

I would be a bit careful about giving her too many less-healthy calories. I read somewhere that even for skinny toddlers, foods with unhealthy fats can predispose them to having weight and/or other health issues later in life. I've given my son stuff he likes laced with additional healthy fats - like a dash of olive oil mixed with some applesauce, squished-up avocado mixed into soups or purees he likes, etc.

That said, hopefully your LO will start liking solids more soon. The difference in the amount of solids my son wanted to eat, and the variety he would eat, between 12-14mo was a huge difference. But, breastmilk is one of the more nutrient-dense things she can be taking in, so nursing (with healthy, higher-nutrient solids) is one of the best things you can be doing for her. That's part of why I have continued nursing my son - it gives him a nutritional base to draw from, even on the days when he doesn't want to eat the healthier, more nutrient-dense solids!

And the whole "pump so you know what she's getting" thing is absolutely BOGUS. Letting down for your child is NOT the same as letting down for the pump, so it's like comparing apples to oranges. And breastmilk changes hourly, daily, weekly - it's not static like formula or cow's milk. Pumping to give the doctor some kind of "evidence" based on the totally wrong idea that what you pump is what your daughter is taking in (when she is almost certainly taking in more), that breastmilk has the same nutritional composition all the time, etc. is beyond inappropriate.

Give this moron of a doctor the boot. Someone like this is downright dangerous.

Keep offering her healthy, high-nutrient foods. It may take a while before she wants more of them, but that's not unusual, keep trying. You may want to try offering hummus (by itself or with crackers or pita), bean dip, thick bean soup, avocado puree or dip, beans as finger food, etc. She may also do better as she starts to learn to feed herself - both finger foods and thick purees with her hands or a spoon. My son is starting to like dipping things, and definitely likes that he's becoming more and more adept at feeding himself with a spoon. Especially in the last few weeks, he's really started packing it away!

Good luck.