slow growing toddler

[pigleychez]

DD2 is 2.3 years and tiny for her age.
At her 2yr check she was measured on the 9th centiles for both her height and weight. Previously 50th then dropped to 25th, now 9th.
Since her 1yr check she put on a total of 3lb!! and grown a whopping 10cm!
The HV double, triple checked her as she didn't believe it could be right.

DD2 is very healthy, happy and has the appetite of a horse so Im in no way worried but wondered if anyone else has a tiny toddler?

The HV asked me to return to her after about 6mths so about Oct/Nov time to be measured again to check she is actually growing.
Out of curiousity I measured her again this morning. She's put on no weight and her height is the same. As I said im not worried myself but concerned that the HV will start talking about referring her to dieticians/pediatricians etc.
Anyone any experience of this?

Perhaps she's stabilising at her correct place on the centiles. Are you slightly built? Or is anyone else in your family?

DS2 was minute for a long time, off the centiles at one point and didn't put on a single pound from age 3-4. But he had eating problems from birth and has since caught up.

As you say, the main thing is that she eats well, has lots of energy and is healthy and happy. If she were weak and fretful with poor appetite, you'd have more reason to worry. Some HVs seem to think all babies should be between 25 and 75 centiles. But 9th is fine!

DD was born on the 91st centile and dropped to the 9th by the end of her first year.

She was born with a heart defect, and had very poor weight gain for the first year. Just before her surgery (at 13 months) she was painfully thin. You could count every rib down her back, and she had a heaving sunken chest. It was horrible to see.

Now, at 2.5, she is a happy, healthy, but very short toddler (still 9th centile). Her size may have been affected by her 'poor start' or she may be just destined to be short (SIL is 4'10") as there are 'short genes' on both sides of the family.

I am not the slightest bit worried about her. She has bags of energy - can run, jump as well as any toddler her age. She can climb as well as many taller children. She has good skin and a healthy mop of hair. Having seen her really ill, I KNOW she is absolutely fine. While she is not fat, she could never be described ass skinny now.

TBH, I didn't bother taking her to her 2 year assessment with the HV. She attends day nursery when I am at work, and they say she is meeting all her developmental milestones. Her cardiologist is not concerned about her height or weight.

As has already been said, there are many indicators of a child's health other than height and weight. The 9th centile is still within 'normal' range. Toddlers growth is not linear and can occur in bursts followed by periods of little or no growth at all. We measured DD at 2 and she was 83 cm. Two weeks ago we measured her again and she was 85.

There are advantages to being short as a toddler. DS had the opposite problem - he was really tall for his age. At two and a half he would have amazing tantrums out in public. As he was the height of an average 4 year-old, he obviously appeared very badly behaved. Now people think that DD is really advanced to be using the toilet when so small!

Does she have any bowel problems? Constipation, diarrhoea or bloating?

No psychical problems, perfectly healthy.

Sadly im not of slight build ( wish I was!) DH was a skinny child so guess she has picked it up from him.

It least its saving me a fortune in clothes :)
She's still in 12-18mth old clothes.

Our 19mo DD is teeny tiny too. She was born on 25th centile, settled for a long time just below the 9th centile for weight and length, but at 18 months was just below 2nd centile for weight and has dropped off the chart altogether for length (about 2cm under the 0.4th centile).

The HB recommended we see our GP who then referred us to a paediatrician. He did blood tests for coeliac disease, thyroid hormone levels, calcium levels and iron levels. They were all normal with the exception of borderline iron levels. We're giving her an iron supplement and we're awaiting a follow-up appointment.

You describe your DD has happy and healthy so I suspect you can rule out all of the above as we have. I suspect coeliac disease may be what Indigo is referring to above.

Incidentally she's always been a very reluctant and selective eater so I'm hoping we'll get to see a dietician at some point. The iron supplement is supposed to stimulate her appetite.

Like Radical, we also have short genes on both sides of the family, and her namesake was 4 ft 10 so I suspect she's just got a double dose of 'short'.

Godness I wouldn't want to stimulate her appetite! She'd eat me out of house and home!

We have no short gene as such, we are all pretty average but DH was always a skinny thing before the middle aged spread caught up with him! :)

my dd1 is teeny too (she is 3.7) - she has broken into the 10th centile this summer - she is currently 94cm and noticeably smaller than her peers, and often children younger than her. She has tiny feet (have barely grown this year) too. She is energetic, eats well and is well built. There are lots of short arses in her gene pool. DD2 is 9 months and is much bigger than dd1 was at that age. Just the way of it.

my dd and ds2 are 23 months and still small. I think they are growing, as they are getting heavier to carry, but haven't had them weighed, and dd is still wearing 6-9 month trousers, ds2 9-12 month (they are 12-18 on top, but starting to grow into 18-24 month). They don't have great appetites imo, quite fussy, but they are full of energy, learning to talk, developing ok, and most of the time I am quite relaxed about it (until I meet a child 6 months younger who is bigger than them and I have a mild panic).

I wanted to say your dd is not the only little one. I focus on development, and if that's ok, I try not to worry about growth. Though it feels odd for me, as ds1 is about 99th centile for height at age 4 (always has been).