low weight two year old

my friend (and sister MDC mama) has a son the same age as ours who was diagnosed as failure to thrive (FTT) at about one year of age. he now has a nasogastric tube (for about the past month) and is gaining well and growing in height, too. his low muslce tone (hypotonia) has almost disappeared, and he is making huge developmental advances, too. she shared that in retrospect, she always knew the answers she was getting about her concerns with him (very thin, slower in developmental milestones, never eating significant amounts of solid foods, nursing very often) never felt quite right. now his care providers suspect that he must have always had reflux (it started with a vengeance when the tube was put in), but she still suspects something else like food allergies might be going on.

so my question to you is is your child reaching developmental milestones pretty much on time (especially the gross motor ones)? does your child have hypotonia/ low muscle tone? do you have any reasons to suspect that perhaps your child is too thin?

it is probably your child's care provider just trying to be reactive to the low weight thing, but just as adults come in all weights, heights, shapes and sizes, children do, too.

~claudia

those are good questions because I think the distinction is important. He is developmentally advanced if anything and I am guessing he uses and knows atleast 300+ words, puts 3-4 words together to form mini sentences, has incredible gross and fine motor skills, can stand on one foot, etc.... I feel like he is amazing in every area and he does have some muscle tone especially on his arms and legs and can pick up and carry things that are heavy for his size. He also is constantly active both verbally and physically and we always joke that he burns off his food faster then he can eat it and the same was true even while he was nursing. I can tell him, "eat five bites and then we will go for a walk" and he will do it. He just seems to be growing up not out. He grew two inches since the fall. Jesica

its hard to have a skinny kid in a world full of chubby ones! but rest assured that if he is happy and energetic and eats something every day then he is most likely fine. i have a 3.5 year old who weighs 25 pounds.. maybe. he was 16lbs at a year 20lbs at 2.. my almost 6 month old weighs more than he did at a year. i nursed him till he was past 2 and he has only just started to show a real interest in food...but he has always been happy, energetic and healthy in every other way. keep in mind that kids so young and small dont need a huge amount of food..

if you are worried about iron you can always try giving him something like floradix/floravit.. they make one for kids too.. i mix a small shot of floravit with juice and my extremely picky kid loves it. i take it as well.

sometimes its frustrating getting kids to try new things and just when you find something they love they dont like it anymore...

my son will almost always eat..(high fat and healthy ideas from a mom who knows all about a skinny kid) we always eat organic eggs and try to eat all organic dairy.

chicpeas and other beans
sweet red peppers
fried eggs (with the yolk mushed but not scrambled..)
toast with nut butter or butter and nutritional yeast
grated cheese (but not slices) we call it cheese confetti
whole pitted olives
whole milk with a bit of maple syrup aded & warmed up(sometimes i expres some BM and add that too)
organic turkey sasuages or tofu dogs cut up and dipped in ketchup
home made baked potato fries
smoothies with full fat yogurt (balkan style), berries, bannana..ect (we often add a scoop of hemp protein powder as well)
balkan yogurt with maple syrup or jam
frozen smoothiesicles
homemade muffins/breads/cookies ..carrot, zuchinni, poppyseed ect

My dd was diagnosed failure to thrive at about a year old. She was 15LB 15oz at a year and about 21 at 2 years. She's fine now, still tall and skinny and looking back I was the same way when I was little.(Only wish I was still like that ) After a full year of seeing a specialist at Children's Memorial they finally told me that even though she has low weight she is still getting TALLER! That's key there because if your son was not getting enough calories he wouldn't have grown those two inches since Fall. I don't think it would hurt to maybe explore this issue a little further just be wary of the invasive procedures for now but talk to a nutritionist maybe. They can calculate how many calories he's getting and if he's getting enough variety etc. I agree about the dairy though. Cut back to 16 oz of whole milk and see if you can replace it with another high calorie/fat food like a nut butter or something so he's not losing those calories, but minus that liquid he may replace it with more food and get that iron he needs. Good luck mama and go with your gut.

I know this is an older post but just felt I could add my 2 cents. My daughter is 2 1/2 and weighs 25 lbs. Both her father and I are petite, she is also active, eats a lot of great food,etc. but it has been the only issue at her checkups since infancy...she is is also usually in the 5th percentile.

At the last checkup we agreed to come into the clinic once a month for six months to get a weight and height on her. This allows us to create a sample of her own chart....so long as she is growing over that period there shouldn't be a problem. This may be an option before pursuing a "specialist" to identify if indeed there is a problem.

Thanks for the info on anemia and growth. I assumed there was a connection there. However, we do not eat much meat (only fish)...I'm curious about checking her iron levels to see if anemia is an issue.

-Akela

I know the OP's situation is resolved, but I wanted to chime in anyway.

My 16-month-old has always been in the 90th %ile for height, but since her nine-month WBC I've watched her weight drop from the 75th %ile to the 60th, 40th, 25th. You can see her ribs and count every one of her vertebrae when she's undressed. She is active, energetic, hitting milestones, etc., but I worry that she's too skinny.

At the 12-month WBC, her doctor said, "Toddlers don't starve to death, but we have no idea why not." He said that he considers it normal to drop off in percentile on the weight chart at this age, and that as long as she isn't actually losing weight he won't worry. But I wonder how much of a percentile drop is okay.

Thanks for the list of high-fat/high-energy foods, MamaFern. Does anyone limit fat and cholesterol for their toddler, or do you figure that as long as you're not feeding junk food, high-fat foods are okay? I'm thinking of eggs and cheese in particular. My daughter would happily eat two or more eggs every single day, but I've kind of been thinking, "four eggs a week is enough." But maybe she's too young to worry about it?

Anyone have good recipies for carrot, banana, or zucchini muffins? I hadn't thought of them, but they sound like a great idea.