Dr said my TF baby is overweight???

[icy02]

Some quick back round. DS1, now 2 yrs, has followed Weston A Price's guidelines for feeding babies and toddlers since birth. He is a great eater and a sturdy little guy. I don't think there is anything fat about him. At his 2 yr well the Dr gave me a hard time because he is in the high 80th percentile. He is 2 yrs, 35 inches (although I think that is a bit of a miss measurement b/c I measure him at 36 inches) and 30.8lbs fully clothed. Even though my husband says "Well, you don't listen to anything the Dr says anyways, why would you start now?" Which is so very true... I guess I just need a lot of reassuring that I'm not overfeeding my baby. Who, by the way, LOVES to eat.

[Mommy2Austin]

My almost 3 yo is 45ish lbs and over 36in tall. He's a beefy boy, but its all solid. He's active, happy, and healthy. The Dr. sees your kid once in a while whereas you live with him everyday. You know better than the Dr. how healhy your child is.

[cmb123]

 I think that when it comes to nutrition, the "guidelines' that pediatricians follow is so far off from what a lot of us "here" do i.e. exclusive breastfeeding, traditional foods etc... that they never seem to have the same idea of "health" that I do.

I try to remember that they are really there to treat illness- so I don't rely on them for anything but that.

[cocobean]

My ds is almost the same size and age.  He is perfectly healthy!  I don't even know if is possible to really have an overweight 2 year old.  Unless you feed them nothing but tons and tons of junk!  If I were you I would find a better doctor who looked with his eyes and used commonsense instead of just what a book tells him!

[tonttu]

My youngest son was like that from birth . If he´s a happy , active child , who (like you said) gets good quality , nutricious  food , I wouldn´t worry about it .

There is a big difference between "overweight" as in fat and solidly built and it´s not like us adults are all built the same either !

[herent]

My oldest son was always 95% height and weight or higher, my doctor never said he was fat.  Today he is 8 years old and skinny and tall :)  One of the tallest in his class.  I don't think childhood weight is a reflection on how they will be later on, so don't worry about it.

[KempsMama]

My oldest will be three in March.  Last time he was measured he was 34 pounds and 36 inches.  So if your guys overweight, so is mine.  And my pedi says he's just a big guy, like his Papa. 

[tanyalynn]

So... a 24-month old child, being weighed at 30.8 pounds, 35" works out on the standard charts as...

81% for weight

64% for height

A roughly 15% difference between percentiles is cause for concern?  You may want to consider another doctor, I wouldn't be okay with the judgement of this one, nor their attitude toward me from what you described.

[cristeen]

That's roughly the same size as my 15 mo, and if anyone thought to tell me he was overweight, I'd laugh in their faces.  This is the kid who can still wear size small CDs he's so thin. 

Numbers on a chart are no substitute for using your eyes and a little bit of common sense.  I think it's time to find a new doc, because this one is obviously lacking in the common sense department. 

Does your DS have to be sized up in clothes because of his belly?  Does he have a paunch?  Does he have rolls and rolls of fat?  If not, then I wouldn't worry about what the doctor said. 

[Elizabeth2008]

doctors know very little about nutrition.  They really have no business doling out advice on it - it's just not what they're trained to do.  My experience has been that they just look at the numbers and that's it.  Your kid could be eating absolute crap but if they are in the 50% range, then great!   They sometimes obsess about things like whole milk - DS's doctor said that as soon as he turned 2 he should be drinking 2% milk (even though DS is tall and lanky and below the 50th percentile for weight).  That was the doctor's only nutritional advice "get off whole milk now that he's 2".  I know a mom who, at the advice of her doctor, put her daughter on 1% milk because she was a "little heavy" and then proceeded to give her soy milk!  And the doctor didn't say anything about all the crackers, cheerios, mac 'n cheese, etc. that she ate.

Don't listen to your doctor.  :) 

[Koalamom]

My dd was at the top of the percentiles and she was a chunky and tall girl.  I am very thin and dh isn't that tall.  If I were overweight perhaps the dr would have said something to us about dd.  Now she is 3 and leveling out slowly.  She is a good eater healthy eater, and I prefer to see a kids with a big of fat than skinny.  My ds at 18 months is at the bottom of the percentiles and I worry about that over fat.  They both eat the same amount of food but he just burns it off faster.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth2008 

doctors know very little about nutrition.  They really have no business doling out advice on it - it's just not what they're trained to do.  My experience has been that they just look at the numbers and that's it.  Your kid could be eating absolute crap but if they are in the 50% range, then great!   They sometimes obsess about things like whole milk - DS's doctor said that as soon as he turned 2 he should be drinking 2% milk (even though DS is tall and lanky and below the 50th percentile for weight).  That was the doctor's only nutritional advice "get off whole milk now that he's 2".  I know a mom who, at the advice of her doctor, put her daughter on 1% milk because she was a "little heavy" and then proceeded to give her soy milk!  And the doctor didn't say anything about all the crackers, cheerios, mac 'n cheese, etc. that she ate.

Don't listen to your doctor.  :) 

I faced this while seeing a substitute Doc for a last minute well-child visit my 6 year old dd needed to get into Kindy.  I don't remember how tall my dd is, but she just has hit 40# at age 6.  She is tall and thin, just like her father.  When that doc asked me if she drank milk and found out she drank whole milk, she said I "might want to bring that down".....I told her the whole family drank whole milk and that I had no intention of changing that.  I am overweight, so I wonder if she thinks my family is.  They certainly are not in the slightest and while I need to fix my eating, I try to set a good example and I do cook and serve healthy foods.

It just kills me that parents are getting the advice "whole milk is making kids fat" instead of  "crackers, cheerios, mac 'n cheese that is far more the culprit.

[icy02]

Thanks for all your support. I know my DS is not overweight, but I was surprised to have him tell me I should be watching his weight. It kinda just took me off-guard.  Neither my DH nor I are heavy, in fact I am quite thin. 5'5 and 115 lbs.

I feed my family real healthy food. In fact, if you gave my child mac n cheese I guarantee he would not touch it. I will not take away his good fats like avocado and coconut milk to please my pig-headed doctor.  I am proud that neither of my kids are 'skinny.'  They are both solid healthy little boys. DS1 eats more fruits and veggies in a day than most Americans eat in a week.

BTW I see this doctor because he doesn't give me a hard time about not vaxing... I take my kids to natural doctors as well (Chiro, Osteopath, and Acupuncture) and cherish their opinions much higher than our Pedi's.