Can I post this here? Question about how big your baby was/is.

659 Views 19 Replies 18 Participants Last post by Castle, Mar 2, 2006

catlvr976

Discussion Starter · Jun 22, 2004

I am a little concerned about dd's weight. She is 19 1/2 months old and at her last dr's appt, she weighed about 22 lbs. She has gained VERY little weight. The dr said that she's the size of a 1 year old. She does base this off of the formula fed baby growth chart, so maybe that has something to do with it.

She is very tall for her age, but a little on the thin side. The dr wants us to keep track of how much she eats so that we know if she's getting around 1000 calories a day. She is a picky eater and pretty much eats only when she wants to. I don't want to force her to eat, either, you know?

DH and I are not tall, I'm 5'4' and DH is 5'7". Two of my three brothers are very tall and skinny and I let the dr know this. We also have a couple of other tall and skinny people in our families, so maybe dd is taking after them.

Or is it just b/c she was exc. bf'd and so is leaner like the studies claim? Should I remind the dr of this? What size was your baby when he/she was around 19 - 20 months old?

Thanks for reading!

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stafl

· #2 · Jun 22, 2004

My oldest is very tiny. I have a friend who's one-year-old son weighs a good bit more than my three-year-old daughter. No kidding! At two years, she weighed almost 21 lbs. and was wearing the same size cloth diaper covers her baby sister is currently wearing at seven months of age.

You know what? Being small is not a condition that needs medical treatment!!
Is she developing normally? Does she look and act normal and healthy?
If there aren't any signs that something is really wrong, and if your gut instincts aren't sounding warnings in your head, chances are there is nothing wrong. I have a friend who put her DD through some rather traumatic and extensive tests to find out "what was wrong with her" only , after like four or five different doctors, to finally be told that she was just small and there was nothing in the world wrong with the child.
No way I'd subject my child to all that based solely on her size. Besides, I was even smaller than she is when I was her age (thank goodness my mom kept really detailed records of my weight and height).

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velcromom

· #3 · Jun 23, 2004

I agree, if there is nothing happening medically,there is no problem. My ds is at the 15th percentile and I am glad our ped has met both dh and I and has seen that we probably are too!

We are small people genetically. It's amazing how many peds seem to overlook this obvious component of child growth.

And anyhow, size during the first years varies so much and may not even reflect the future size of the individual, either. My dh's little brother was a huge baby and toddler, and now is a man of less than average height. But dh and his older brother were below the charts all the way along. Go figure.

I wouldn't let the ped stress you out, just keep reminding them how small mom and dad are and how healthy ds is.

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Firemom

· #4 · Jun 23, 2004

I'm 5'10 and dh is 5'11 and my dd was 24 lbs at 2 years. She was always a long skinny baby and child and still is at 7 years.

As long as baby is healthy, hitting milestones etc there is nothing wrong with being thin.

FireCrotch

· #5 · Jun 23, 2004

That's too bad that the doctor made you feel concerned. My 2.5 year old weighs in at 27 lbs. She is in the 75%
I hate percentiles, but still, how come my 2 year old is in the upper percentile and she is only 5 pounds heavier than your 19mo old? Maybe the doctor should chuck that chart! Your child sounds perfectly fine.

MamaAllNatural

· #6 · Jun 23, 2004

That's the same size my dd was at that age. All my kids are about average height but very, very light....just like me and dh. As long as she's gaining in length and head growth and is hitting developmental milestones age appropriately there's really nothing to worry about. It sounds like she's built like the rest of your family. You might want to switch to a more 'common sense' doctor. I don't mean to sound rude but that is one of the first things I look for in a doctor - that they're able to see the big picture (i.e. she's built like you, dh and the rest of your family).

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Shonahsmom

· #7 · Jun 23, 2004

Just chiming in to agree with everyone else. My dd is 4 1/2 and weighs 29 lbs. She's just little. Her ped, who's wonderful (she nursed all 3 of her sons until they were three) did ask me to bring her in once a month for a quick weight check between 9 and 15 months, just to keep an eye on things. She assurred me she wasn't worried, that she just wanted to be precautionary. After those 6 months, she assured me (and herself) that dd was perfectly healthy and thriving, and just naturally tiny.

Leatherette

· #8 · Jun 23, 2004

Are breastfed babies supposed to be leaner? My son wasn't. He was 22 lbs at 6 months. His best buddy was 22 lbs at 2 years. He is still a small, healthy boy who has a small mom and an average-sized slim dad. They had many tests done on him to see if there was a "problem". They concur that for now, all they can say is that he is small.

L.

MamaAllNatural

· #9 · Jun 23, 2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leatherette
Are breastfed babies supposed to be leaner?

No, not at all. Well, breastfed babies in the first 6 mo of life gain weight more rapidly than ffed babies, but then bfed babies weight gain naturally slows whereas the ffed babies continue to gain. But then of course ffing has been linked w/obesity. I think we're just sharing our stories of our leaner children so the OP can see that it's normal. I've known a lot of huge kids that were breastfed too. My Aunt's kids were huge and they had nothing but breastmilk for at least a year. Her ds #1 weighed 35 lbs at 1 yo!

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Parker'smommy

· #10 · Jun 23, 2004

ya know, I had a TEN pound baby boy and now I have a 25 pound 28 month old. According to the dr. books he should have been 30 pounds at 1 years old because they are supposed to triple their birth weight at one year. Whatever. Not all people weigh the same and carry their weight the same. It makes me angry to no end that drs expect children to fit into this neat little package on their charts!!!!!!!!!!grrrrrrrrrrr

RadiantMama

· #11 · Feb 26, 2006

my dd is 21 lbs at 2 years, its OKAY!

sometimes i worry my metabolism is keeping nutrients and fat from her
because i'm so fat
and she's so skinny
but i know she is healthy
by the looks of her

Realrellim

· #12 · Feb 26, 2006

I'm not sure of your DD's history here. Has she been gaining normally until now? If so, the dr might be concerned only because it's a marked change, which might signal a possible medical problem. Or, it could simply be that she's been more active and/or eating less than normal, and so she hasn't gained a lot of weight, or she's in a holding pattern, or genetically, she's programmed to slow down, weight-wise now. But the dr is just trying to look for a cause, and certainly a food diary--while a huge PITA--is less invasive than immediately running a bunch of blood and urine tests, etc.

My DD was labeled failure to thrive at 12 months--and she is tiny by anyone's standards, including my own (at 12 months, 26" and 14 lbs 2 oz). She's always been small (and so am I), but until her 9 and 12 month appt, she only weighed 1/2 lb less than I had at that age. At 12 months, it was 1-1/2 lbs less, which concerned me. And, she'd only gained 8 ounces in 3 months. (I think the Kellymom site says BF kids tend to gain 3-5 oz per week between 6-12 months.) Sigh.

We have done a two-week food diary and our ped thought it looked like she was getting enough calories. So, at her 15-month appt, we'll see if she's caught up a bit (when I say "caught up," I only mean that she's gained a bit more--she has never ever been on the charts at all), otherwise we'll probably check for a medical condition (anemia comes to mind) just in case.

Don't stress about the food diary--you don't need to change the way you offer food or anything else. I wouldn't have guessed that DD ate enough solids to keep a bird alive, but the dr seemed to think it was ok. We don't force-feed either, although we've been tempted.

Good luck! Hopefully it's just a small snag and she'll suddenly have a weight spurt.

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travelinmom

· #13 · Feb 26, 2006

Reminds me of my dd, very petite. She's eight now and almost weighs 40 lbs. Has consistantly been in .05 percentile. Less than 1 percent. When she was an infant dr. did all kinds of tests because she wasn't growing very fast. Her father was about 5'3'' and I"m only 5' 1'', I didn't weigh over 100 lbs till I got pregnant. I think that it's just genetics.

melinoz

· #14 · Feb 27, 2006

My dd sounds like she's about the same size as yours. She'll be 19 months in a few days and she weighs 22lbs. She's also breastfed. Her ped worries about her being small also.
DD has reflux and sees a ped GI doctor also. He has kept a close eye on her weight and is not a bit worried about it. He says that some kids are on the lower part of the growth curve. She's petite - that's all.

TiredX2

· #15 · Feb 27, 2006

Given the size of you and DH she sounds right on to me.

I am 5'5" and DP is 6'1" and DD was tall, but around 22 lbs at that age (20 lbs at 12 months, around 24 lbs at 2 years). She was and is perfectly healthy.

I'm honestly surprised that your doctor is seeing this as a problem, because 22 lbs isn't even *that* small for a 19 month old:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/...l/cj41l018.pdf

According to that chart she would be somewhere in the 10-25th%, so not "average" but well within the range of "normal". Is there some other reason your doctor is concerned--- poor skin tone/lack of hair or fingernail growth/not reaching milestones/etc...? Because low weight is not an adequate indicator *alone* of growth issues.

TiredX2

· #16 · Feb 27, 2006

Oh, I just wanted to add that all kids grow at different rates.

My children both started out very similiar size
DD: 7lb14oz
DS: 8lb2oz

At one year:
DD: 20lb
DS: 22lb

But, they've overlapped at this point
4.5 years
DD: 37.5 lbs
DS: 36 lbs

Most people don't grow linearly. It's just not a problem.

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bri276

· #17 · Feb 27, 2006

10th percentile is no cause for concern, unless there was a sudden and significant drop- and even then, one time of being "off" isn't a big deal, it would need to happen a couple times to show a trend.

my2girlz

· #18 · Mar 2, 2006

My 1st one was like that. She was 18lbs at 1 year. At 6.5 she's about 50" and 45lbs. tall and thin still. Now my 3rd child is big! He's 18.5 months and 30lbs and 36". Just a few lbs and a few inches shorter than my almost 4 year old. She's short for her age. They are all different so I wouldn't worry about it.

momto l&a

· #19 · Mar 2, 2006

My dd#3 is 16 months old and about 20lbs. She is my fattest baby.

I have skinny babies

but when you look at me youll know why as I am 5'8" and 110lbs.

As long as the child is healthy whats the worry?

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Castle

· #20 · Mar 2, 2006

My DD was almost 20 lbs at 6 months, and about 21 lbs at 2 years. We only take her to the doc when she's sick, so we had no one telling us it was a problem, but I was a bit concerned. So I researched online and found that a growth pattern of gaining well till 6 months, then stagnating till 2 years, then gaining well again after that is normal though not very common. That's exactly what my daughter did, as she's now 32 months and 30 lbs.

From http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic472.htm:

Quote:

Children with constitutional growth delay (CGD), the most common cause of short stature and pubertal delay, typically have retarded linear growth within the first 3 years of life. In this variant of normal growth, linear growth velocity and weight gain slows beginning as early as 3-6 months of age, resulting in downward crossing of growth percentiles, which often continues until 2 or 3 years of age. At that time, growth resumes at a normal rate, and these children grow either along the lower growth percentiles or beneath the curve but parallel to it for the remainder of the prepubertal years.

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