Toddler weight

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

I want to start this by saying I have the most beautiful little girl who is nearly 19m old. She's gorgeous, clever, inquisitive, loving and looks like a Botticelli cherub.I'm also a recovering anorexic who doesn't let myself pass 50kg (I'm 5"4), obviously aside when I was pregnant - so my judgment is very skewed.

My daughter has always been a little chunk. She's been in 2-3y since 10m old and is now pushing into 3-4y. She's quite tall - around 70th percentile - but over 97th for weight. My nearly 4 year old boy by comparison has always been a tiny, lithe thing.

Anyway, I'm trying to balance keeping my daughter healthy while not passing on my issues. Given the choice she would never stop eating. She had two bowls of porridge this morning, some fruit and raisins. She's following me around with her bowl asking for more.

I'll make her scrambled eggs for lunch with wholewheat toast and she would easily see off two large eggs and two pieces of toast if allowed. Dinner is always whole foods - veg, meat or fish, pasta/potatoes - followed by full fat plain yoghurt and fruit. I'll give her a handful of baby crisps or a home made ice lolly a couple of times a week if we're out but no other junk and she's very active. I just don't get how two children can be so different!

At what point should I think about limiting what she eats? Or is this all in my head? Ok desperate to get it right and hyper aware because of my own food issues:

Thank you

Is she a healthy weight?

She's 97th centile at last measure so... sort of?

What is she doing on her weight line in her red book? Is she maintaining or increasing up the centiles? If the latter I'd perhaps curtail the portion sizes but your HV would be better to advise.

My son was born 10lb3 at 39 weeks and was off the weight chart wise. He is now 3 1/2 and has over time dropped to 75th centile. He still eats a lot some days but others it's evened out slightly more. This has only been happening in the last 6-12 months. He does however fit in his age clothes until a couple of months before his next birthday. He now looks solid (broad and muscular) but definitely not overweight. He is the opposite of his sister who at 5 is like me all legs and quite skinny.

What centile was she born on?

I know you’ve just given a snap shot but she is getting protein, carb and veg
or fruit with every meal?

My LB was on a much higher percentile for his weight than height when he was a toddler and he ate LOADS. We didn't ever try and curtail what he ate but we did always make sure he was eating real food and balanced meals. No UPF, complex carbs etc. Once he started running around the weight dropped off him and now he is slim. I would focus on what you are feeding rather than how much because I would imagine if you are feeding her the right kind of stuff (not saying you aren't) then her body will be able to adjust her appetite to meet her calorie requirements.

I haven't tracked her on the red book - I opted out of the HV team after finding them worse than useless when I had my son - but she's been around 90+ for weight since around 3 months. She was exclusively breast fed and now eats a healthy diet - porridge and fruit or eggs with wholewheat toast for breakfast, lots of vegetables, fish and full fat yoghurt and cheese for protein as she's not keen on meat (none of us are and I won't give processed stuff like nuggets).

She slimmed out when she started running about but she's chunking up again. Maybe due a growth spurt? as I said, I don't want to project my stuff onto her but I also don't want to let her get overweight as overweight children often turn into overweight adults.

She was only 8lb 1 at birth but put on weight quickly after that - but as far as I'm aware you can't overfeed an ebf baby?

Thanks for all your experiences, I appreciate your insight

I had two very large toddlers. DS was off the scale for weight. I was worried, especially when the doctor mentioned something at his pre school jab. But by the time they got to 4 they just started stretching out and now they're both very slim and very tall. Their dad is 6f5in and his mum said he was exactly the same as a toddler. I guess I just make super chunky toddlers.
It sounds like you feed them healthy food which is great.

Understand where you are coming from. Sounds like she is getting all the right food groups. Possibly keep an eye on it, I vaguely remember being told a toddler portion of something is their fist size. For me personally from my own personal parenting experience if she'd had two bowls of porridge then I wouldn't be offering anything else until mid morning snack which would be something like fruit sticks and hummus. Knowing that porridge is a slow releasing but a dense food I wouldn't be concerned that she was still 'hungry'. I did also go against the guidance in regards to full fat and put my son onto semi skimmed at one year because I knew he was getting enough fats and proteins from other sources.

My 2nd LB was 3kgs at birth and is now almost 12kgs at 9mo 😂He was also EBF - honestly, when she starts moving more it'll drop off her.

@Icanttakethisanymore that sounds like how my girl was at 9 months; she's running about like a maniac all the time now and still a (gorgeous) chubby thing.

Consensus seems to be to keep an eye on her.