big DD should I be worried

[slightlyconfused85]

I weighed my DD on our home scales today and she is 14kilos and mearly 21 months which puts her up towards the 98th Centile. she is also around this for height so I realise she's more or less in proportion. She also has a really big toddler belly, bigger than all her little friends, although the rest of her looks quite normal/slim.

For some reason I am worrying endlessly about this. She eats quite a lot, but I've posted on here before about her diet and I'm confident she eats well, only drinks milk and water and rarely has sugary snacks. I am not tall or big and neither is DH, although we both have some large people in our family. She has steadily crept up from just above the 75th to the 98th centile since her birth, although she has always been 98th-99.6 for her height.

I think I'm just looking for reassurance that it is normal to have a big child. Should I start looking more closely at her diet if she has creeped up the centiles? I think she's perfect and beautiful but I'm pretty sure she's the average size of a child over a year older than her and peoples comments about how 'big' she is have started to worry me.

FYI her diet:

Breakfast: bowl of shreddies or 1 weetabix plus a couple of squares of toast with marmite.

Snack: a banana or a small pack of dried fruit

Lunch: bowl of spag bowl/stew/fish and pasta/ etc. sometimes give her a little yoghurt and she will then have a few berries and grapes. Her lunch is quite big, bigger end of a toddler portion but always serve her about a third of what I would eat.

Snack: just a little bowl of an ella's kitchen snack or dried fruit if she didn't have it in the morning.

Dinner: 1 scrambled egg with toast and tomato, or a cheese/chicken sandwich made with one pice of bread. Fruit.

She has c. 5oz full fat milk at both ends of the day and drinks water.

spends plenty of time in the park/swimming/walking/running about. She is always hungry and asks endlessly for snacks ('nacks') although I try to be very careful about her having 2 snacks a day only.

[AlpacaLypse]

As you say, she's 98 percentile for both weight and height. She sounds gorgeous and healthy to me. If you get on okay with your HV maybe ask her/him to reassure you. Diet sounds fine too.

I sometimes get so angry with those red book percentile chart thingies... although I think we'd all probably wind ourselves up about something else instead if we didn't have them!

[slightlyconfused85]

Thank you alpaca. She really is much bigger than other children her age and older, and as me and DH are only slightly above average height, normal build (me) and slim build (him) I am surprised she's such a big girl. I was tall as a child though so perhaps she'll just even out. Does anybody know if I should give her semi skimmed milk instead? I have read that they sometimes suggest this for larger children although I'm not sure.

[TooManyDicksOnTheDancefloor]

My first daughter was 98th centile for weight from one month old! She's really slim now at 6 years old so I wouldn't worry. In regards to semi-skimmed milk, my 19 month old dd has always had semi-skimmed (from 12 months) and she's 50th centile for weight. I don't see the problem in giving semi-skimmed.

[PowderMum]

My eldest DD was on the 98th percentile from birth, and through all her school years. She was a big baby, a chubby toddler and at least a head taller than her school friends at primary. By the beginning of secondary a few others had caught up. She is now nearing her 18th birthday is 5'8" and a curvy size 10-12, so totally normal.
She was eating at least as much as your DD at 2 and was still on full fat milk, as far as I was concerned as long as hr weight and height were in proportion and she was eating healthily, fresh fruit, veg and pasta mainly and sugar was minimal then we were doing OK.

[tobysmum77]

98 th centile at 20 is 5'9.5". I'm that big and totally 'normal' . I cannot believe only 2 women in 100 are taller than me tbh, I know several! !!!

[OutsSelf]

"Children should be given full-fat milk until they are two years old because they may not get the calories or essential vitamins they need from lower-fat milks." from the NHS website here

You need the fat in the milk to get all the vitamin D (there is a current vitamin D problem in the UK because of low sun exposure and it may be exacerbated by using low fat dairy, I'd guess). You need the vitamin D to absorb the calcium. So if you aren't giving full fat milk, your child is not getting the amount of calcium and vit D that they would if you did.

Though the NHS recommends using semi-skimmed so you cut down on calories later in life, there are lots of people who would question that wisdom because you continue to utilise calcium and vitamin D as you grow and because digesting fat does not cause an insulin response: you have to have insulin in your blood to store excess glucose, which is a sugar, as fat. If you are concerned about weight lost you'd be better off cutting down on sugar and starch; fat is good for your joints, digestion, skin and brain. Cutting down on it is an efficient way of managing your health.

[OutsSelf]

Sorry OP, also - your DD sounds fine! The centiles are supposed to represent the expected norm, someone has to be the 98th, if the weight and height at the 98th were 'too' heavy or tall, they actually wouldn't be included on the growth charts.

[slightlyconfused85]

Thanks all really grateful for your thoughts. I am happy that she's currently in proportion but just worried her weight gain will never slow down like they say! I would be very disappointed with myself if she becomes overweight because I am allowing her to over eat.

[OutsSelf]

It takes years and years of intervention to get an otherwise healthy child to over eat, OP. Trust her and you won't have to worry at all. Your job is to provide healthy meals and her job is to eat what she needs from that. You don't have to manage her appetite!

[SurfBoredCat]

Please don't worry - those percentile things are just a guideline and somebody has to be on the 98th!
FWIW I have 3DC: one is taller than average/chunky, one is smaller than average and average build and the other is average height but very small build - they couldn't be more different!
Sounds like she's eating just fine and aged 3-4 they start to stretch out and lose the toddler shape so you'll see lots of changes then.

[Gab3478]

Just wanted to add my DD is the same, she is very big for her age and I always get comments on it, esp as I am small. I went through a period of stressing about it but I know she doesn't eat anything bad and have had to relax like PP have said that she won't over eat. She does have too much milk I think so trying to cut that a little.

With regards to the belly, again mine is the same, it's a big old pot belly no mistaking! I did a lot of looking into it and apparently it's to do with the stomach muscles not forming yet at their age, this is something that comes in time so nothing to worry about and very common even on little skinnies

Try not to worry x

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

My DS1 was the same.. but he was short (under 25th centile) and fat comparitively (98th centile ) at 2. He ate and ate and ate as a baby... drank gallons of milk and when weaned ate anything and everything! I'm tall and skinny, Dh is average height and skinny, and I was worried sick.By 12m he wasa lot heavier than his older sister who was 2.

At 3 he was still square... I was quite strict ( no junk food, no high calorie drinks) but he just liked LOTS of food, and I was very worried he would start school as an overweight child.

But at 4 he just started to slim down.. the chunk disappeared and by 6 he was a string bean!

He stayed smaller than average height, but now as a 21 yr old, is 5 ft 9, thin as a rail (10 stone at best) and is trying to gain muscle and weight at the gym..he has ended up absolutely identical to his very slim , fit dad..who was also a right chunky lump as a toddler.

I do think that keeping an eye on his portion sizes aged 3-4 was sensible, but actually... as a slim family who don't overeat, his natural genetic body size just gradually emerged.

Your DD's food intake sounds fine.. and I suspect she will even out as she grows:) DS1 also became a lot fussier post about age 4.. (in fact it's only in the last year or so I have stopped hiding veggies in my cooking ) so being a foodie as a toddler doesn't mean she will be forever :)

[Stretchmarksarethenewblack]

Your dd sounds fine op. Our dd is 2nd centile and I'd stress about it too but like your dd, she was in proportion with a healthy diet. X