Paediatric referral

[SJE29]

Not sure where is best to post this (fairly new to MN)
What happens if a baby is referred to a paediatrition for slow weight gain? My little girl is being monitored as she is so dinky for her age (4 months) she is close to dropping 2 percentiles in which case she will be referred. Just wondered what sort of checks they do? She is fine in every other way developmentally. Just very small! TIA X

Ds1 dropped from 75th percentile to the 9th (at 1 year). He had an allergy to dairy (which had nothing to do with his weight as it turned out) and they did a sweat test and some blood tests (samples from heel pricks/thumb pricks). Can't remember what exactly they tested for with the blood other than coeliac disease which runs in the family.

The result was he was fine btw. Just very light. He's now 12, completely fine, on the 25th for height and 9th for weight. Fast runner and very agile.

A friend's son had similar tests after he dropped off the weight charts as a baby. He's now 13 and is also fine, just really small (just like his mum).

It's good that they check but its not time to worry if she's otherwise fine.

Depends really as there can be lots of reasons for slow gain and/or dropping centiles for weight.
They will most likely ask you or want to see how she feeds, looking at potential breathing issues, vomiting, posseting too much.
Looking at her heart, ( My DC is a heart baby who went from 85th centile to between 0.04th and 2nd centile at his worst ) sometimes a hidden heart problem or murmur can cause issues with feeding, not just along with breathing issues, but they tend to need more calories as their bodies work harder so they could do a ECG scan or Echo or X-ray.
It could be digestion issue, they may look at getting a stool sample and ask you her normal routine with her nappies etc.
They may look at her Ear, nose and throat to see if anything physical is stopping her from drinking.

There's a lot to look at as you can see, but they do take it seriously when babies suddenly start loosing weight so be reassured they will look at everything until they make sure they know what is causing it.
Fingers crossed its something minor and gets resolved quickly.

My little girl has just been referred to a paediatrician for slow weight gain (dropped well over 2 centiles) she's now 5 months and has gained less than half of what she supposedly should have. She does have reflux and is on medication for it which has made no difference to her weight gain. She has just outgrown her newborn size clothes

We saw the paediatrician last week she asked me some questions, examined my baby briefly then said she isn't concerned about the slow weight gain as she is developmentally well and truly on track and discharged us back to the gp if any problems.