Anyone else with a small child?

[*LoveBugMama*]

My son was born 3 weeks early. He was 21" long and weighed just over 10 lbs.... A big boy.....:LOL

He was big until around 5-6 months, when his growth slowed way down.

Now he is 29 months old, and he is a very small child.
He is 33" tall and weighs around 26-27 lbs.

So he is in the 5 percentile, I was told at his 2 year check up.

Anyone else with a small child?

It is sometimes hard to always have to tell people that "no, he is not 18 months. He is almost 2,5 years..."


But ofcourse he is the most adorable boy EVER!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

Mine is 24 months and 21lbs. It's so funny that you posted because I just spent all night taking in pants for my daughter. She can't fit into ANYTHING because she's small and out of diapers.

As I was hemming I was thinking about what I will do with all these pants after they're too small. I guess I'll just post a gift to another parent of a small child.

BTW, my dd was 9lbs 14oz at birth.

[georgia]

my youngest weighed 9 lbs @ birth and 17.5 @ 3 months. he weighs 18 lbs at 12 mo! breastfed babies have a tendency to gain weight faster earlier then gain slower as they age. each baby follows his own growth curve. by best friend's youngest weighs only a few lbs more than my youngest and she's almost a year older. she has always been given a hard time "wow, she's so tiny" well,to look at the parents is sometimes helpful, too. something helpful for me to think about is "he's exactly where he's supposed to be!" IMO, that growth chart was made to super-charge a parent's competitiveness. we don't need more of that in this world! each child must fall someplace on the curve....some children are bigger, some are smaller. each is perfect. hang in there!!!

[MamaMonica]

I have a petite child who was always small- she was 6lbs 14 oz at birth and at four years old is 33 lbs- she just grew but people up until a few months ago mistook her for a 2 year-old. She's healthy, strong, smart and active- and eats well- just is short and small.

My toddler, her brother is very tall and lanky- totally differnt body type.

[Nikki Christina]

Kayden is little too.. at birth she was 7lbs 4 oz & was 3 1/2 weeks early.. since then she has never lost weight.. just gained at a very slow rate.. shes been in the 5th precentile since she was 3 months old

she is now almost 30 months & is about 24-25 lbs.. not sure how tall.. havent seen the doc in awhile & she wont let me measure

shes not potty trained though & in cloth diapers.. thats the only things that keeps her pants up..:LOL

[L.J.]

Another small child here. My ds is 5.5 years & looks more like a 3 or 4 year old.
He's very petite and well proportioned, just small.

At first it bothered me, especially when the doctors were telling me to "beef him up" and get extra fat on him. I felt much better when I quit listening to them & quit looking at growth charts.

My dad used to tell me to go sit in a mall for 1/2 hour and look at all the different people and see short, tall, skinny, overweight, etc. He would say I should line up 10 thirty year olds and see how many of them had the same body types & sizes.

My younger son, however, is opposite. Big, chunky, tall. Hard to believe it was the same gene pool!

[meg]

My son is 28 months and weighs 20.5 lbs. He weighed 3 lb. 7oz. at birth (he was a 35 weeker). He has never been on the growth charts at all.
He's been categorized as FTT but he is the most energetic, healthy, bright kid you'll meet.
So we struggle with adding calories to his diet but he burns calories faster that I can sneak them in! He wears suspenders to keep his pants up and I have just started to downright scowl at people who say "he's so small! He's so tiny! How old is he, one?"

[ctdoula]

I have a tiny one too (she was 16lbs 11oz at 1 yr & is about 18.5lbs now at 16.5 mo). She was born in the 50% & dropped ever since. Now she's under the curve. When people see her out of her cloth diapers, they can't believe how tiny she is, LOL. They make a deceptive tushie that makes her look bigger. She's SUPER healthy.
Amy

[*LoveBugMama*]

Thank you, ladies!

Its soo good to hear that I am not the only one with an ittybitty child!

And I know exactly what you mean about the pants, HannahSims!! LOL
My son is still in diapers, and his pants are WAY to big.. Don`t know how I will keep them on him when he is out of diapers!

[its_our_family]

My son was 7-12 and 21.5 inches at birth. At 3 months he was at 16 pounds and 22 inches. At 12 months he was 20 pounds wet and 26 inches. Now at 18 months he is 23 pounds and 30 inches tall.

I think he is jsut going to be petite! He is still able to wear a lot of the clothes he wore last winter at 6 and 7 months! He is inbetween sizes. I think he is going to be more legs than torso (like my dh....who is 5'6" and a 6'0" man wore his tux and the pantlegs were a little long on him!)

I can't imagine how big his pants would be without a diaper!

[justmama]

My daughter is not as small as some of the children on here, but she IS tiny! She was 6lbs 5oz at birth and now at 39months she is 31lbs 4oz as of last week. She's BARELY in 3T clothing(only fits because of her height). Her weight in regards to her height puts her in the 15th percentile. Her pedi drives me crazy telling me to feed her butter and oil. GRRRR! She's just a super healthy little girl who has a figure like her father. Tall and skinny.
Meg

[snuffles]

My 19 mo dd was nearly 10 lbs at birth and is now only about 19.5 pounds! The ped she went to recently seemed a little concerned.. she was 33 inches I think? She was about 50% on the height but not on the charts at *all* for the weight. She still nurses a lot, and just nibbles food. I'm not worried. She is petite.

My other dd, who is almost 3, was very low on the weight percentile as well.. about 26 lbs.

Mel

[Janessa]

My 2 1/2 year old dd is 25lbs and 33 inches tall. She was 6lbs 12 oz and 19inches at birth, 18lbs 30 inches at a year. She's just a petite girl. Now that she's potty learned she is impossible to get pants that fit her. I keep meaning to make her some but her piggy brother is keeping me busy. He on the other hand was 6lbs 15 oz 20 inch at birth and is now at 5 month 18lbs 8 oz and 26 inches He's wearing clothes that dd wore at one year. Kids are hilarious and so individual
Janessa

[Kundalini-Mama]

Us too! Aidan is now 20 months old and weighs 22lbs and (I think) is about 33 or 34 inches tall. He seems to be a lot shorter than kids his age, and weighs tons less.

He is now 100% out of diapers and it is HARD finding pants to fit him. He still does well in some 12-18 pants, and fits perfectly in 18 month pants, while some 18-24 are huge on him. We are buying 2T shirts in hopes of getting more use out of them.

My MIL, bless her heart, thinks he is way bigger than he is. She just went clothes shopping for him and got him 2- 3T shirts and one sweater, some pajamas in 4T, and a fleece jacket in 3T!! Amazingly enough, the pajamas fit well. They are long in the legs but, he should only get a year or so out of them b/c they are snug to fit and so damn tight!!

Amy

[PuppyFluffer]

Count my dd in! She is 16 months and 17lbs 11 oz. I have a digital scale at my the veterinarian office I work at part time and I take her and weigh her once a week. I think she was 28 inches last time I measured several months ago.

I just came off of a Failure To Thrive diagnosis from a ped who only saw her the one time. He didn't even use that term or explain what he thought we should do (he wrote it on the office/billing code sheet).......but made the comment that she was not on the chart for weight and low on the chart for height. He also said we were a "little uncomventional" without explaining what the heck that meant. He said "call me if you need me" and out the door we went. It wasn't til I got to the counter that I saw the FTT diagnosis. It was unsettling because we are a "delaying vaccinations" family (read non-vaxing) and I had visions of him calling social services because we are "unconventional" according to him and not vaxing and she is failing to thrive. Never once did he ask about her developmental milestones or her diet. I called the next morning to follow up with him and he told me she needed a "workup": Bloodwork, an x-ray of her hand or knee to determine her skeletal age and a urinalysis. When asked why he did not discuss these things with us (DH was there too) while we were there he said "I didn't think you were interested in following up." Needless to say, we're never ever setting foot in his office again. What an assuming arrogant clueless guy. I assured him I was very concerned and would follow up with her regular dr who is wonderful!!!

It is hard when they don't fit the mold that everyone wants to put them in. There is just so much diversity and normal is a huge window. My instincts tell me that she is perfectly fine.

Our regular dr, a family physician, said that the first nine months are nutritional, after that you begin seeing adjustments for genetics. She is not worried about her at all, especially after seeing the diet log I kept for a week!!! All organic homemade foods for her. Tons of veggies - broccoli, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach etc...Rice, millett, beans, oats, barley.....kefir, wheat germ oil, flax seed oil, yogurt, kelp, granules......still breastfeeding on demand!!!

Anytime our kids are not right in the middle with whatever, there is a tendency for others to notice and then I think alot of moms get worried. It is reassuring to have this group of moms who share experiences. All the sudden, one of us realizes that we have have lots of moms with similar situations and it is reassuring. I just trust my instincts!

sorry this got so long!

[Periwinkle]

Ds is 22 pounds at 17 months. That may not sound tiny, but it seems so to us, especially compared to his twin sister who's 26 pounds and 90% for height and weight! Since ~6 months, ds' weight has ranged from 5-7 %ile. He is 60% for height. He eats like a horse, but he's just an active little guy I think.

I'm pretty much over my panic mode that set in a year ago (almost exactly), and have almost come to accept that this is just who ds is meant to be. But I do worry sometimes that he's not getting enough calories, especially now that we're entering that toddler phase. He's self-feeding with a spoon, drinking from a cup, and doing pick-ups... and when they say they're done, they're done - no wheedling, no cajoling. I'm trying not to make food an issue, kwim??

In some ways, it was easier to stuff him to the gills (figure of speech) when I was spoon feeding him baby food. He'd just eat and eat. Now he eats what he likes, and then that's it. As I said, he still eats really well (more than his sister who's 26 pounds and 90% for height and weight!!!) but I do worry about what I'll do if the "picky toddler" phase sets in.

In writing all this down, I realize that I have been a little worried about protein and iron intake for both dd and ds, and I've heard iron deficiency can cause slow growth. Dd and ds eat like they're vegetarians - whole grains, fruits/veggies, cheese... almost all organic. They like fish and chicken, but neither is high in iron. OK, I'm going to start another thread...

[Ilaria]

Owen has always been small. He was 5.13 and 19" at birth, full term.

He is about 27 lbs now, at 28 months. He has always been in the 5th percentile, except for once he reached 15%

I'm not worried, he is bright , active nad eats like a pig!

[Oklahoma Mama]

My ds was 5.9 lbs at birth and has always been around the 5th percentile. He is starting to slowly catch up now. He is 20 months and 32 inches and about 23 lbs.

[Threefold]

My ds isn't on the %$@ charts that stress me out!
He was born 6 weeks early and was 5lbs 3oz and 18 in long.
At 4 months he reached 25th% for weight, but hasn't been on them again since he was 12 mo. He does follow the curve perfectly, just right below the 0% line. . .
He doesn't eat a ton, but he does eat consistently and he still nurses significantly.
He's 25 lbs and 35.5 in at 34 months. I really try to project this attitude of it being just who he is, but it does get to me when he is smaller than our 15 month old neighbor. At my best I think it's just him, but there are these weird worries that crop up, like me wondering if the in utero exposure to ultrasounds caused this, or the drugs I was put on for pre-term labor, or if I did something else wrong while I was pg. I make myself crazy sometimes, though I am very aware to keep my cool to keep ds from developing issues about his size and or food.