[laohaire]

I know, I can take her to a doctor, but I'm not sure if our FP is the best judge of this. I'm willing to find another doc too but I really don't know, she could be perfectly fine. If you guys give me some input that makes me concerned, I'll go to the next step; if nothing seems worrisome, I'll let it go.

DD is 3 years old and probably in the 5th percentile for weight. I'd have to look up milestones to see if she's meeting them (she's my only child and I have almost no other experience with children, so I really have no idea). She does seem bright and curious and active, but are there other signs of possible FTT other than not meeting milestones and being listless or something, and probably bad hair/fingernails? (Not that I'm not even sure I'd be able to identify the latter, to be honest).

 

[laohaire]

I looked up the milestones and she seems ok in everything except she's not an expert in climbing stairs and also jumps poorly, but she's working on both of those and can technically do them both. A lag in gross motor skills is not surprising since she has/had hypotonia and was followed by Early Intervention for it, but they released her as she was well on the way to catching up. So I think she's ok on milestones. I just don't know if there is anything else to look for. She really eats very little (she does nurse quite a bit), and she's going to be 3 in a few weeks. I relaxed about her eating and her weight entirely for about a year, but I guess that worry has started rearing up again.

 

[aris99]

How much does she weigh and how tall is she? Has she grown (height-wise) at a steady pace? Even if she's in a low percentile she might still be moving steadily along her own growth curve.

My son was hospitalized for nutritional deficiencies. He has severe food aversions and he literally had 2 or 3 foods that he could eat when he was about 2.5 yrs. He was not considered FTT because he had been growing steadily but he, too, was low on the growth charts.

The Dr explained to me that a child would have to be stalled as far as growth was concerned for a relatively long period of time in order to be dx's as FTT.

If you are worried I would ask for a referral to a ped GI. They will be able to tell you if your dd has FTT and they can rule out physical causes.

Personally, I think you'd know if your dd were FTT. My son was not dx'd w/it but he wasn't acting normally (for him) either. My youngest was born very small and though she's done a lot of catching up she is still small. She eats small amts but frequently throughout the day and I know she is ok. I don't stress out about her because she's active, busy and happy. My son was not. Big difference between them!

Hope this helps a little!