Is there anybody out there?!......With a smaller than average baby?

[Babydaze]

My dd is 8 mths and weighs a petit 12lb 4oz. Took her to Baby Clinic yesterday & they asked me to make an appt with the doc re. her being small. So I did that. The doctor said not to worry & has referred her to a paediatrication. I'm sure I can't be the only one with a lo. But feels it at the mo.

hiya my son is just out hosp he is 2yrs old and is weighing 20lb he is ill and im really worried about him but you have to keep your chin and not let your child see that you are worried as they pick up everything

good luck and chin up janette

My godson is a diddy one... he has had stomach problems though, so they know why (if that makes sense?). He is 3 1/2 and just been weighed at being 30lbs ish.

The good thing is - he gets a lot of wear out of his clothes as he doesn't grow out of them so fast

I am sure there is nothing to worry about, but they are sending tou to the ped just to make sure. Was she little when she was born?? or has she slid down the charts??

I cannot help much except to say my dd was prems o has always been little, she was about 13lbs at 1 yr, so smaller than yours. She is now 6 and still the smallest in her class. But with her there is a reason for it and she is growing steadily.

I am sure they are checking out that there is no problem that hasn't been picked up. It will be fine.

My little charge is tiny.... she is now OVER 3 1/2 and weighs no more than 13kg (prob nearer 12kg) her feet are 6 1/2 (well ones a 6 actually)

BUT she eats loads and loads of good healthy food, and eats pretty much the same as an adult....

she is just dinky tho and in 18 - 24 month clothes still! Alot of her age 2 skirts literally fall down while shes wearing them!

The only "issue" i can see is her still being in a group 1 car seat when she starts school in September, cause until shes 15kg theres no way im changing her car seat!

My ds it now 4 and weighed about 25lb he can still fit into some 2 year old clothes!
He was low birth weight at birth and has stayed along the 9th centile - I often worry about his weight and if he is actually putting any on but he is active and seems to be healthy so I don't worry too much at the moment.
I do worry about the fact that his 2 year old sister will soon be bigger than him though! some one has all ready commented about how they could be twins! until they heard the way dd talked!

Yes. Was obsessive about weighing dd before she was 1. Dd has been looked at by GP, pediatrician, sent to A&E, evaluated by SALTs. But after she turned 1 and after I went back to pt work, stopped weighing her. Now at her 2 year check, the HV couldn't be bothered that she is 1% on the weight percentiles. Just looked at me and said I am small and so is dd. End of story. But the HVs do worry you when they are at baby stage. If your dd is otherwise happy and developing nicely, I say just take it with a pinch of salt. Difficult I know when everyone's else's baby seems to be ballooning upwards and outwards.

DD was 5lb 11oz born at 38wks. She is gaining weight but v. slowly(an ounce a wk at the mo)I can see she is developing normally i.e: crawling, babbling etc. so that's fine. Upset at the Baby Clinic the other day. The hv who I'd never meet b4 came in & never even introduced herself. She weighed DD & then it was 20 questions about bf & what I feed her. They weren't interested in DDs general health or developement other than her WEIGHT. Also, strangers tend to come up to me & ask how old she is & then looked shocked & always say "Was she prem?" & "Have you had problems with her?" Rude.

been there twice, been through the whole Paeds thing only to tb told he's absolutely fine, just genetically small (my Dh is tallish but they are all skinny as anything- MIL 6 stone)

My twoa re dairy intolerant but I don't think that has much to do with it, they apck it away and still don't gain much (DS3 is 2.5 and wears size 18 month vests)

DS2 is bang on average- kids are wierd aren't they?

Paeds is a good idea to just check, but don't worry, small babies are fab... and they make clothes last so much longer!

Thanks Peachy! Actually I do appreciate the benefits! Like you say she is getting great wear out of her clothes & baby stuff. Obviously I don't want to hinder her growth but love that she's little & she does seem to be a 'baby' longer than my 2 other kids were. They grew so fast & were out of their clobber within wks. I hope it's just that she's a wee lo.

nannyL, you are describing our dd except she's 4 yrs 5 months and in full time school ! Misdee had a thread similar to this about a week ago and ther ewer lots fo small tots on MN.

I'd not worry too much - she wasn't too small at birth for 38 weeks and as long as she is gaining and her development is ok then she may just be a small child.

My 3rd baby is a little one - he was a normal weight at birth but not gained much. I had him weighed yesterday - he's 6 months on sunday and is only 14lbs 11oz so is between 9th & 2nd centile. He's all totally in proportion though and I think he looks rather cute being little.

Babydaze - this sounds so familiar! dd was 5 11 at birth and stayed petite. Was sent to paed to have her assessed and also had to see nutritionist as dd was a dreadful eater. She was always in her own curve as she never made it up onto the bottom one! Finally got discharged with docs admitting she's just petite. I could have told them that! It's not as if she ever lacked energy! Our problem was that DH is this hulk of a many so naturally the HV etc. assumed dd had to be big too. FFS I'm only 5ft4 with very slim wrists. I might be a bit overweight but I'm not a walkure!

She's now 4 and has shot up a bit... though as in my note below to NannyL you can see she's still petite. However heightwise she's finally on 50th and weightwise she crept into 0.4th

So go and see the paed but don't worry if your dd is otherwise alert, active and cute.

I can sympathise with the is she prem remark. I just replied smugly. No actually she was 2 weeks late she's just perfect the way she is.

NannyL ... are you looking after my dd? she's 4y and weight 12.5kg shoe size 6 and can actually fit into her brother's bodies. He's 17 months!

Another tiny one? my dd is 3 1/2 and weighs only 28lb, just gone into size 6 shoes with an insole to lift her up a bit, and measures 98cm, I have all the problems of finding clothes to fit, Pampolina do quire a lot with waist adjusters, which is a god send! Funnily, whilst I was pregnant I was told I was carrying a big baby so I bought a few things in size 3-6 months, what a shock when dd was born...so tiny at 6lbs 1oz, had to buy lots of new born which fit for ages! My biggest problem now is that her pre-school is attatched to the infant school so they mainly wear uniform, trying to get an age 2 school skirt/trousers was impossible so I had to order some age 3 from m+s but they were gigantic on waist. I suddenly wished I'd taken more interest in sewing at school!
Anyway to put your mind at rest I went through the same with the health visitor, it got so bad I stopped going to the weigh in and weighed dd when we saw the gp who was great about her weight, I think the health visitor looked at my overweight frame and thought I was feeding myself but not my dd!

anglesmummy... so you're another one, like me, who can't be bothered to feed her kids eh? . I actually had one HV who asked me whether I actually try hard enough to feed dd... erhem... of course not... I tie her to a pole in the back yard and see what she can catch!!! I just took dd and walked out before I hit her! Oh and another one suggested strapping dd into her highchair, restrain and force feed her. The second HV was also the one who kept saying 'well my ds at that age ate xyz and was so'n'so big'... hello... a) I have a daughter and b) aren't all kids different?

Havn't really been to HV with ds in fear they're going to tell me he's too big he weighs more than his sister!

The nutritional advice we got from our dietician was mainly focussed on the milk, but we discussed the benefits of adding olive oil to almost every savoury meal possible, and decided it was an excellent idea. Olive oil is of course healthier than butter, still is choc full of calories.... and just think how her hair will shine!

Don't worry about the ignorant comments. Were your baby big /small / badly behaved / serious you'd get them too. I don't have any big kids, but mine do fit variously into serious (Is he always so miserable?) small (won't evenrepeat it here, it's on past threads though), badly behaved (When my kids were called they always came, you need to smack him- ds3 has glue ear and can't hear me). Ignorant people say ignorant things.

Thankyou Mrs B, I'm glad I'm not alone in my bad experiences, I think we must have had the same Hv, or god forbid...there is more than one out there with such terrible idea's. My dd has spent the last 3 weeks at my mums while I recover from Radio active treatment, and my mum has been making anything and everything to tempt her into eating what she feels is "enough to thrive on", my dd's godmother is looking after her in an afternoon and after bringing up 2 children of her own she is amazed at how little appetite and complete dissinterest my dd has in eating. On the first teatime at godmothers my dd screamed so piercingly my friend nearly dropped the plate she had turned around to pick up, she was scared to turn back around thinking my dd had suffered something terrible......it turned out to be the fact my friend had placed a plate of cottage pie and veg in front of my dd, who was now screaming "I don't eat this". My dd then refused to go the following day as "aunty Caroline gives me food I don't like" Its an absolute nightmare!! Does any MN have any advice for me??

Thankyou Mrs B, I'm glad I'm not alone in my bad experiences, I think we must have had the same Hv, or god forbid...there is more than one out there with such terrible idea's. My dd has spent the last 3 weeks at my mums while I recover from Radio active treatment, and my mum has been making anything and everything to tempt her into eating what she feels is "enough to thrive on", my dd's godmother is looking after her in an afternoon and after bringing up 2 children of her own she is amazed at how little appetite and complete dissinterest my dd has in eating. On the first teatime at godmothers my dd screamed so piercingly my friend nearly dropped the plate she had turned around to pick up, she was scared to turn back around thinking my dd had suffered something terrible......it turned out to be the fact my friend had placed a plate of cottage pie and veg in front of my dd, who was now screaming "I don't eat this". My dd then refused to go the following day as "aunty Caroline gives me food I don't like" Its an absolute nightmare!! Does any MN have any advice for me??

Sorry Angelsmummy, don't know what I'd do. Mine are actually quite good eaters - even my wee DD.You wouldn't believe it! Maybe you could try doing some basic cooking/baking together to get your DD get her more interested in food? Good luck.

I have been a bit worried about my DS 2.4. He has been below average in that 'Red Book' for a while. When I say below average I mean below the thick blue line, not totally out of it. Recently (scales got an airing on the Lardy Club threads), he stepped on my scales and was 2.1 stones. He is only 87cm in height and I must admist I do worry. He was 6.4 at birth. Dad & I were 10lb. DH is 6.1 and I am 5.3. So goodness knows.

Oh and he doesn't eat, he simply shakes his head and says 'like' meaning don't like. Bottle or milk in the morning & evening, tried stopping them but it had no effect. After that, pretty much eats like the ones on the 'my child is the worst eater thread'.

Sorry I meant to say, that yes, it's hard because everyone keeps saying he will sprout. Not much use to you though. I do know how you feel.

Is he alert/plenty of energy/happy with life/active, UCM? How does he seem? If he IS ok in all of those respects then I would think that he is fine. There is a BIG range of normality and the HV doesn't know a bee from a bull's foot.

If there is anything else you are worried about, take him to you GP and keep posting on MN!!!!!

UCM consider this:

to have an average there have to be above and below so if all babes were the same there would be no average

Also at least your's in in the curve somewhere! DD had her own

God yes, he's a little monster. I was just expecting him to be bigger as DH & I were chubsters. TBH I don't love those red books at all. Thanks for replies anyway.

I threw the red book in the bin after the fiasco with ds2's health I give HVs a wide berth. If I'm worried about anything I take them to the doctor.