- my DD is not 'RUNTY'!!!

[NarabugHitWindscreen]

Ok, long story, I went to a party yesterday for my friend's baby who is the same age as my DD (a few hours younger), they are both 1.

My friend's DD is tall for her age, and weighs 25lb, she is walking, my DD is just under 20lb, crawling like crazy but not walking, and looks 'small', she is very healthy and has no problems.

My friend introduced me to a relative (can't remember exactly the relationship) who looked at DD and said 'Aw, bless how old is she?', I answered that she was the same age as (party baby), and this woman responded 'oh! She's very small isn't she. She's a bit runty, is she healthy?'

I made a polite but swift exit from the conversation (before I was too tempted to force-feed this old fart bag lady several large sausage rolls.

I heard her use the term several times during the party, refering to my DD as 'the runty one'.

Was IBU to want to scream 'just cos (friends DD) is bigger than mine does not make my DD runty!!!'

...... breathe.....

Urgh YANBU! I'm the runty one of my family- it's a hilarious family joke that has been goog on a good few years now! Silly old cow. If you see her again and she says it just say 'well that's not very polite is it?' old people hate to be brought up on their manners.

How incredibly rude.

I'm afraid that my reaction would have been to laugh and then reply, 'well yes, when you sit her next to 'your' heffer of a baby, she does ...'

Erm digs out chart from HV 20lb at 1yr isn't even small... it's almost exactly average! So that woman obviously can't even tell...

But IMHO there are great advantages to having an ickle tiny weeny baby. I can still carry DD anywhere, swing her about etc whereas all my antenatal class friends are struggling!

Perhpas she is of farming stock and just automatically uses the term for a small child as she would for an animal.
To me an insult is only if it is intented as such, and I'm sure hers wasn't.

YANBU! How rude!

We get the opposite comment. My DD is 3 months old and already wearing 6 month old clothing. I've had 'wow, she's gigantic!' from the doctor! And various other comments, including disbelief that I breastfeed.

It's bloomin' annoying, isn't it? Maybe try to turn comments like that round, saying something along the lines of how lovely it is to have a small baby and what a shame it is when they get big so fast!

I started a thread in behaviour and development for people whose little ones have weight problems. There are things I would like to discuss that don't really come under the topic of "Am I being unreasonable?"

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/behaviour_development/958736-Underweight-child-support -thread

There is no doult that the OP is not being unreasonable. The lady at the party was horrid.

Yanbu! Very rude of her!

My dd, will be 1 in June, and she was on the 91st percentile for weight at birth, but dropped over the month to the 9th. However she was always only on the 25th for height and has remained that. But the "discussions" I have had with the HV over her weight! Made worse by the fact she is breastfed.

She also still has not got a tooth in her head! But she has hair so long it is actually in a little bob!

It is impossible to compare babies, they will walk/talk when they want to, and I am just convinced my DD was born to big for herself, and slowed down till she was where she was meant to be. She is a dainty little thing, but certainly very active and eats more food now than her 2 year old brother at dinner time! Poor thing, he is a shorty too....my 6ft 1 husband is starting to think they inherited my short gene!

If anyone had called my dd a runt (she is dainty, petite) I would have decked them one!!!

YANBU. Why do people assume it is ok to comment on other peoples/babies appearance. She was just rude IMO.

That's a horrible thing to say. My dd was always tiny as a toddler (has caught up now) and I would have been really upset and angry at that.

Runt of the litter has really bad connotations doesn't it? It doesn't just mean 'small'

blimey yanbu! I didn't even like it when our puppy got referred to as runty!

When 9.7lb DS was born SIL said 'oh look at the runty baby'. I was horrified, it later transpired she thought 'runty' meant chubby as she thought that's why pigs were called runty

i would have smiled sweetly and said "well she has a chance to grow big and strong where as you are old smelly annoying and will hopefully die soon." Then i would have held her head under the chocolate fountain till she stopped struggling....

I'd be offended by that as well. Maybe you could bring it up with your friend, she can let this woman know she offended one of her gusts. And maybe she will stop referring to a human child as runty in future.

One of her guests I meant.

I'm another one who calls her own daughter 'my little runt' - she's a skinny little minny (just like I was at her age ...sign...)She's not, imo, petite (with the undercurrent of feminine daintiness that implies)

I don't think of it as hugely offensive, and I probably wouldn't be offended if someone called her runty (to my face) in a friendly well meaning way.
Although 'the runty one' to all & sundry is pushing it

I do think sometimes (not aimed at you, OP) we project our weight issues onto these poor babes - some are fatter, some are slimmer, end of.

I think runty carries the connotation of being weak and unhealthy though - not something you want of your baby!

If you called a baby little, or tiny, or wee etc it would be different. Runty just has a negative feel to it.