Talk to me about growth in your 3 - 4 year old

[sheeplikessleep]

DS1 has always been an eater and never skinny. He was a chubby baby. But he eats 'normal' foods, snacks on rice cakes, fruit, breadsticks type things, some biscuits / cakes at weekend. I've always encouraged him to stop when he is full (my CM once said "it's like he doesn't have an 'I'm full' button").

He has always hovered between 50th and 75th centile for length (urring towards the 75th) and around the 75th for weight.

Thought I would just measure and weigh him, haven't done it for ages and noticed he hasn't grown in length in the last 5 months (when we last measured him). So he is now midway between 25th and 50th for height, but just under 75th for weight. Obviously this discrepancy makes me think I need to be watching things a bit more, but I am wondering if it is because he is due a growth spurt, as he hasn't grown in 5 months.

He is 98cm and 16.6kg by the way.

Just wondered whether growth spurts happen at predictable times for young children, as they do for babies?

Thanks

Re-reading my post, I thought I'd clarify first paragraph - I don't give biscuits / cakes at weekend unlimited. They are limited and as a 'treat' we have a cake after lunch on a Saturday, or at birthday parties etc.

In the week, he eats things like spag bol, shepherds pie, fish pie, grilled chicken and jacket potato, salmon etc etc for his meals.

I've googled elsewhere and on one of the online calculators, he's coming up as 'overweight'. I am worried now. He just seems to be constantly hungry and asking for food and I'm always saying 'it's nearly tea time, just wait a bit'. He only drinks water.

I'm going to cut down his portion size I think and make sure we do get out every day. DH says its about exercise as much as food.

My ds hardly grew at all between the ages of 3 - 4.5. He was 99th centile for length and weight at birth but by the age of 3 was still wearing age 18-24 mth trousers!

Sounds like your ds eats brilliantly and is probably growing if he's always hungry. My dd is 3 and is like this at the moment - we think she has hollow legs!

Is there a HV clinic you could go along to for some advice?

DD2 is nearly 4 is 1m tall and weighs 15kg.

As there have been several threads like this recently I checked it out on an online calculator too. I know when I have measured the height of my children it can be quite hard to ensure their heels stay put, they are standing completely upright, head is straight not up/down or whatever, I found that entering that a child is 1cm more, which could be possible from trying to measure a young child, the result can be very different. I have measured the height of my children several times and never seem sure!

Were you concerned before you measured him or was it just to check?

smashingtime - yeah, i should go along, just a bit nervous of the whole 'can we talk to you about healthy eating, up fruit and veg' type advice.

evolucy - i've always been a bit concerned, as he has always had a 'good' appetite and always been a bit chubby (god i hate that word, but he's always had a chunky thighs for example). he used to have a double chin, but he's lost that and his arms seem more in proportion now too. he's in 3-4 age tops and 2-3 (some 3-4) age bottoms.

when i see other kids literally not eat anything, ds1 seems to just shovel it in. i've learnt (recently!) that he seems to stop eating and say 'finished' and if i don't remove it straightaway, he starts tucking in again a few minutes later (if we are waiting for ds2 to finish his meal, for example).

i also don't think he eats any more, portion size wise, than his peers.

if he is 'due' a growth spurt', then i think his height would catch up with his weight wise. he's also recently started at nursery and so i think will be burning more energy there too.

thanks for posting. it's difficult to know when to worry and when to just think 'it all evens out'.

i also wonder if it's because i think ds1 eats more since arrival of ds2.

i try to make sure ds2 has snacks and also yoghurt / fruit after meals and obviously give ds1 the same (he rarely used to have much in the way of pudding). so if i'm being honest, he is eating more now than before ds2 was born.

Well - my 3yr old is had a massive growth spurt this year. Last time I measure him (well before Christmas - think it was September?) he was 106cm - he's grown a lot since then

DS2 was very similar (now 7yrs old and one of the tallest children in his school)

DS1 was very different - he grew in fits and spurts. Sometimes he's put on weight and not grow at all, or his feet would grow but he would't grow in height. and if he has a height growth spurt then his feet stay the same size and his weight doesn't go up accordingly.

thanks baroquearoundtheclock - so do you think your ds's growth spurt was in first or second half of third year (roughly)? i am guessing as ds1 hasn't increased in height in 5 months that he is due one soon.

we gave him slightly smaller portions of cereal this morning and he didn't ask for any more. maybe we are giving him too much portion wise

I think it's been constant with DS3 actually . He's never really had growth "spurts" - he just seems to constantly grow (I'm hoping he does eventually stop growing all the time and stick to spurts ]). He can't carry on like this for sure.

He won't be 4 until the end of May. So so far his growth has been in the first 2/3 of the year.

If you think he's eating more than he needs, you can control that, as you say, but I think you'd need to monitor his weight over a period to be sure that it was out of balance with his height.

My DD1 started to look a little plump for the first and (so far, at 13) last time when she was three. I also started to worry about her diet, which was pretty good). Then she started to shoot upwards, rapidly, as if she'd been placed on the rack...

I'd say, keep an eye on it, but don't panic.

Stray ) crept in there.

thanks, i'll try not to panic. to be honest, i don't want to stop giving him food when he asks (providing not too close to mealtimes, when i refuse), but i think i can monitor a bit more with giving him a little less. i know he eats well (most of the time!), so it isn't a case of what he is eating that i can attribute it to. i can only attribute it to how much, both in terms of food and exercise. maybe he is just someone who is going to have to exercise a lot too, to counterbalance his love of food!

everyone around me worries that their lo's don't eat, but i seem to have the opposite problem, worrying ds1 is eating too much.

thanks all for posting.

Also, the weather will improve soon (surely!) and he will be able to run around outside more.