Underweight toddler anxiety

[charlotte5592]

I feel horrible having to write this, I feel like I'm failing as a mother.

I love my son more than anything in the world, I'm often accused of pampering him. He never goes without anything even if it means I would. When he was 6 months he was diagnosed with epilepsy and has been on medicine ever since. He is now 20 months and we recently went to get him weighed.

He is not even on the percentile scale for height (small) and 2nd percentile for weight. I feel sick he does eat lots and we are going for tests on Friday (blood and swear) to see if there is an underlying cause. He's always been small but healthy and his father and I are short and his dad is skinny.

Has anyone else ever had this with a very small child :( looking for advice and reassurance? xxx

[Miloarmadillo1]

Hi Charlotte. I see lots of similarities with my DD who is 2.5. Diagnosed with Infantile Spasms at 8m and treated with steroids. She stopped growing for a while and has never caught up ( she is growing but growth velocity is poor, no ' catch up' growth). She is below the chart for height and 2 nd centile for weight. They have never been concerned about her nutrition since her weight centile is higher than her height centile. She looks normal toddler slightly chubby, not under or over weight. She eats like a horse, many people have commented they have no idea what she does with it all!
We were referred to endocrinology who ran a load of blood tests (tested for coeliac disease, growth factors, general organ screen, calcium and vitamin D) all of which were ok, she was monitored for 6 months and hadn't grown enough so she had a day in hospital for growth hormone testing, which was also normal. So we are at a bit of an impasse for now, they will just monitor until she is four, if she is still off the chart then growth hormone treatment becomes an option. She should probably be 25th centile based on me and DH and our older boys. I firmly believe the high dose steroids she was given have (permanently?) affected her growth, she was growing as expected until she became ill. Have you looked into whatever epilepsy meds your child is on can affect appetite or growth, I know some of them can. Don't worry though, there has never been any implication that we were in any way to blame. I'm sure they will be able to see your DS is well cared for.

[charlotte5592]

We are in almost exactly the same situation. Your message really has made me take a sigh of relief that I'm not along so thank you! We are having those tests Friday and my little one sounds exactly the same as your daughter. I had a look at his medicines and it said they can cause weight loss and his consultant said it can have all different side effects so we will see I will let you know xxx