Are your allergic children small?

[Tournesol]

DS2 has had an egg, dairy, nut and sesame allergy diagnosed since weaning (6 mo) and is now nearly 4. Thing is he is tiny. Very short and very light. He is on the 2nd centile for height and weight and looks like a two year old.

I have been quite worried about it for a while as my other two (non-allergic) kids are on the tall side of average and DH and I are both quite tall (6 ft and 5.10).

I have tried various avenues to investigate it. He was tested for coeliacs and his hormone levels were also tested. We have been seeing a dietician and she has given me lists of food to up his calorie intake but he does eat quite a lot and his diet is pretty good.

I guess I am just wondering if his height and weight difference is due to his allergies or something else? So I wanted to ask if your allergic children were on the small/light side?

My DS is lactose intolerant and has anaphylactic nut allergy, he is 13 and is taller than me. So no.

DD now 25 lactose intolerant is small, always was. I think it is just the way she is.

DS 18 is nut and seed allergic, but was never small. He has always been on around 90th centile for height and weight. Now 6ft tall

Thanks for your responses.

Think I will ask the GP about it again. I just feel I spend so much time worrying about what he eats and planning food for him and yet I have failed to get him to grow!

My DS was above 95th at birth but dropped to below 25th by 8mths due to the fact that his allergies went undiagnosed for such a long time (despite my protestations that something was clearly wrong!). He's allergic to milk, wheat, eggs and nuts and is short for his age (roughly 25th centile for height) but since diagnosis we managed to get his weight back and he's followed the 50th centile for a few years now. When he was little I used to add olive oil to virtually all his meals but stopped doing that when he was about 3 (although I do still add quite a bit to his pasta sauce once a week) . He still has banana and avocado 2-3 times a week to increase his intake of good fats but he does so much exercise it's not easy trying to keep his calorie intake up without dairy or eggs so I know what it's like! Lots of the dairy alternatives don't contain as much fat as the cow's milk varieties so I'm always looking for ways to get good fat into his diet (sardines are good as they also contain calcium).

How heavy was your DS at birth? Being on the 2nd centile isn't the end of the world but it IS a concern if they started out following the 95th, for example, then dropped dramatically.

My ds is 18 months old, tall for his age and on the 75-90 centile for weight

Forgot to say that he is allergic to egg and dairy!

Off topic but I saw the title out of the corner of my eye and thought it said 'are you allergic to children small'. Thought WTAF?
Made me chuckle anyway

He was 50th centile at birth and then due to allergies and illness dropped to 25th where he stayed for some time but in the last couple of years he had gone down to 9th and now 2nd.

I first started to get really worried when I realised he had stayed the same weight for over a year.

The dietician is analysing his food diary again and is going to try and find a non-dairy supplement to try and beef him up a bit.

Just getting worried about him starting school and being the smallest by far.

Hi Tournesol,

While my multiple allergy son has always been beefy, he was below 9th percentile curve on height until i took wheat out of his diet. It was a non ige allergy so didn't come up on the tests, and it didn't show easy to spot problems in the amounts he was normally eating - i only really knew when i upped the amounts daily for a coeliac test. Since taking wheat out of his diet, he's shot up on the percentiles. I haven't checked lately, but i know he grew about 3cm in the 3 months after i changed his diet. He also sleeps much better (less pain) and no more burst eardrums, which were happening each and every month.

I went to a training day recently, for professionals, on latest info, and they were very clear that it's not weight that should be worried about specifically, but height. Obviously, if they're underweight that's an additional concern, but fat short babies can be just as allergic as skinny ones. It's a change of approach (she says, having been told multiple times it couldn't be allergies because baby to was too chubby).

If I were you, my concern would be that there is something that it still irritating his GI tract and he's not getting nutrients absorbed properly; and that maybe there's another allergy you haven't spotted yet. :-/ Good luck

Thanks mayfairmummy that is really useful.

It is the height thing that concerns me as my DH and I are both tall, however I am naturally thin as is most of my family so the weight thing doesn't seem out of genetic character, whereas the height does.

Will certainly pursue this with GP and see what avenues we can look at.

my son was correct height for his age but was always underweight, on 25 to 50 percentile depending on health.

however now nearly 18 has just started to put on weight and increase diet choice after long complicated allergys list and reactions.
6ft 2 inch and growing. v slim, but not skinny iyswim.

rest of family v tall and chunky.

Are your other dc girls? I ask because if you compare growth charts boys tend to grow in sharp bursts where girls grow little and often.

I haven't noticed it except with celiac children growing a lot after diagnosis.

I have another son who is six and above average height and normal weight and a daughter who is nearly two and seems pretty average height-wise (and has the world's chunkiest thighs!).

The height difference between the boys is massive, whereas my daughter seems to be catching up with DS2.

I know I shouldn't google but I did and just read loads of stuff about dark circles under the eyes indicating undiagnosed allergies and DS2 often gets really dark circles and can get quite lethargic. Now I am worried he does have another allergy but I really don't want his diet restricted anymore than it already is!

He was tested for coeliacs but it came up negative so does this mean it defo can't be wheat?

Sorry for stream of conciousness, getting more worried now!

A negative blood test for coeliac disease does not rule out a wheat allergy or intolerance. In fact, it doesn't even rule out coeliac disease 100% as false negatives are not that uncommon.

Interesting..
My parent 5"7 and 5"10
Me and sister 5"4 and 5"2 she was and is tiny, petite you would expect 5"6 for both of us.
We have
Me asthma. Hayfever. Hypothyroidism. Allergics to perfumes
Her
Asthma, hypo,
But our mum did smoke during pg so could all be that.
My 20m old was born 7lb10 60%
Was really growing well in next size up clothes.
She has a soya allergy and is now 50% height and 25% weight which is short considering her dad is 6"1.
I wonder though asthmatics could be smaller due to trouble breathing.
Another baby i know was similar started high percentile for height but dropped down has banana allergy and maybe another mum is small but dad is tall.

Has he been tested for coeliac disease? A completely separate issue from allergies, but some people have both. If I were you, I would ask for him to have a blood test for coeliac. Don't change his diet before the test as that will stop it working.

If it does turn out to be coeliac I know that will be another massive food restriction - but it will transform his growth. My DS1 (also aged 4) had only grown 1cm in the year before diagnosis - in the year after (when he was gluten-free) he grew 10cm!

I'm surprised that's not 99% :)
How tall does that estimate her to be?