Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Please help - skinny baby!

18 replies

LittleOneMum · 22/09/2008 13:38

My DS was one on Saturday . He is lovely.

However, am just back from HV who said that he is on the 9% percentile for weight and 99% for height. She asked me very carefully if I was feeding him enough. I explained that he eats like a horse and that I am NOT deliberately underfeeding him (as her tone seemed to imply). I'm not too worried because he has loads of energy and sleeps/plays/eats well but she reckons he needs to be monitored every fortnight.

He is one FFS, not 6 weeks!

Does anyone have any experience of a skinny baby who filled out a bit? Should I start feeding him lard? (joking...)

DH and I are both quite light ourselves as well.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
AMumInScotland · 22/09/2008 13:45

If you and DH are slim, or were as children, then it's no surprise if your DS is too. So long as he's growing, has plenty of energy, not getting ill etc, then don't worry about it. And don't be hassled into going in every 2 weeks!

My DS was about those centiles, and is still tall and slim - he's just the same shape as my brother and father were in their youth.

Octothechildherder · 22/09/2008 13:46

Ditch the HV.

TheArmadillo · 22/09/2008 13:47

are you and your dp tall as well as slim?

You say he has plenty of energy eats and sleeps well. Is he generally healthy?

If so I wouldn't particularly worry about it.

MadamAnt · 22/09/2008 13:50

DD was on the 75th for height and (at one point) the 2nd for weight. I spent months worrying needlessly. She's just a beanpole by nature. One of my HVs was shite like yours, but the other one kept stressing to me that as long as she had plenty of energy her skinniness wasn't a worry. It took a looooong time for me to trust her on that though

mellyonion · 22/09/2008 13:53

my ds was exactly the same!

i was referred to a paed becaiuse he had (and still at 2 has) raised lymph glands in his groin.

the paed took one look at him, checked his red book growth chart and said he was a perfect example of a breast fed baby, and how it was a refreshing change for him to see a baby of a nice, slim stature rather than the obese children he sees on a daily basis.

my hv did advise me to feed my ds up using minadex...a vitamin suplement which apparently promotes appitite.... she also advised to do the opposite to everything you do when you're dieting...ie..add milk, cream, butter etc to anything you can, spread butter thickly, give him highly calorific snacks etc...

he is still very slim, but dh and i were as children, and my older 2 dcs are both tall skinny minis!

try not to worry...as long as he is well in himself, i'm sure he's just fine. don't be pressured into getting him weighed fortnightly...you will start to obsess about it, and as long as you are happy, then i wouldn't worry....

LittleOneMum · 22/09/2008 13:57

Oooh, Melly, that's reminded me that my Mum used to feed me Minadex! I haven't heard that word for a good 25 years... Ah, now I think I should have a chat with my Mum about what I was like as a child. Thanks!

OP posts:
LynetteScavo · 22/09/2008 14:00

Don't get me started on HV's and skinny babys!

I've been asked "what are you feeding him?" to which I relpied "food" Duh!

My skinnines haven't filled out yet (despite an enormous grocery bill). If your DS is fine in every other way, I really wouldn't worry. (I'm just glad mine have the skinny gene form my side of the family, and not the fat gene form DHs side )

LynetteScavo · 22/09/2008 14:01

Minadex is good stuff!

Peachy · 22/09/2008 14:04

My skinnies have filled out a bit but were all 0.4th centile at points- ds4 has just reached the 9th- yauy! lol (born on 75th- still there for height)

you can calorie up a diet healthily; olive oil, avcados (1 year olds love them in a dip), dairy foods.... amazing how effective that can be!

for some reason with all the furore over obese kids us mums of skinnies seem to stick out as ubusual. Shame realy, whose kid is less likely to develop diabetes, heart diease, cancer........

rachelp73 · 22/09/2008 14:41

LittleOneMum, please don't worry, I agree with everyone else who has posted. My DS1, nearly 5, has always been long and skinny since birth. He was the Peter Crouch of babies LOL! He has stayed like it. He is on the 99th centile for height, and hovers between 50th and 75th centile for weight, and has done since he was about 6 months old. He literally looks like a famine victim when he is naked, and I'm sure if most people saw him with no clothes on they'd be a bit .

But my lovely HV has never been worried about him, knowing how healthy and full of energy he is. She took one look at me (I'm naturally skinny myself, horrible stick arms and legs - yuck!), and also met my (slim) DH once, and said "It's no surprise he's built like that, he's obviously going to take after you two". None of this nonsense about getting weighed every fortnight. All she ever said was "As he's so tall, he can take a bit more weight, so don't worry if you want to give him an extra biscuit or two if he wants it!" Totally sensible lady.

You can't force them to eat more if they don't want it. My DS1 goes through phases where he's starving all the time and will eat loads, and then weeks where he's less hungry. But he's obviously getting enough calories as he's healthy and growing UPWARDS at a rate of knots. (he is by far the tallest in his class at school - 18 months ahead of average height of his age group). The way I see it, if he wasn't getting enough calories he would't be growing upwards as quickly as he is.

DS2 at 2.5 is only on the 25th for weight, and about average for height I thnk, but because he's not outrageously tall, he doesn't look too thin.

You don't say much about his diet, but as other posters have said, as long as you're not thinking of "healthy food" in terms of what an adult would think of as "healthy" i.e. low-fat, then you'll be fine. A growing child who is not overweight should have full-fat everything, loads of dairy, bread & butter as snacks not just fruit & veg sticks or raisins type of snacks (I gave biscuits a lot of the time if kids still hungry after healthy main meal and yoghurt for dessert - as long as they got their fruit & veg through the day I didn't give a ff about the odd biscuit, but others might disagree!). I give mine supper just before they go to bed. Usually toast or bread and butter. I'm surprised they are hungry enough to eat it seeing they usually eat a good main meal a couple of hours before, but they do!

Fruit smoothies made with yoghurt etc etc.

It's difficult if your child just has a fast metabolism, which I think DS1 has. He stays packed lunch and can easily polish off: ham sandwich on wholemeal, a yoghurt, some cheese cubes, some strawberries, and a gingerbread man. Other kids eat a LOT less than that in their packed lunch and aren't skinny - I think it's just the way they are.

Do not worry! I wholeheartedly agree with Peachy, people's idea of the "norm" has changed with regard to weight, now that there are so many overweight people about. I have in the past been right hacked off with overweight (and I do mean overweight) acquaintances feeling it within their rights to tell me that I'm too skinny and "need some meat on my bones", when I eat normal amounts of food and am perfectly in the middle of the healthy weight range on a height/weight chart, and they clearly are not (yet I wasn't so rude to point that fact out to them - maybe I should!).

LittleOneMum · 22/09/2008 15:09

Rachel (and all others) that's SO helpful. I will try to feed him a bit more high calorie foods - I do feed him full fat everything but I think you're right about avocados and bread and butter and things. He does have a ridiculous metabolism I think. I was on hols with my friends and their 2 year old daughter and my DS easily ate twice what she did!

OP posts:
iamafitmama · 22/09/2008 17:15

oh well, refreshing to read these threads!

My 6 months dd is on the 99th centile for both height and weight and the hv has put her on a diet...

Needless me and dh all come from very tall and solid (not fat!) family.

It goes to show that we always worry, whatever the reason...

iamafitmama · 22/09/2008 17:16

I meant, needless to say

ExtraFancy · 22/09/2008 17:39

I've got a skinny one too! He's nearly 14mo and still in 9-12mo trousers - they have to be tightened with a belt or they fall down, and he's not walking yet as he's too tall and skinny to balance properly. He was BFed until 6mo, and now eat like a horse - I don't know where he puts it!

His dad is VERY skinny though - only weighs 9 and a half stone. I'm not worried as frankly I would rather he had his father's metabolism than mine

rachelp73 · 23/09/2008 14:33

Imafitmama, i am that your HV has put your DD on a diet! If her weight and height are in perfect proportion then what on earth is she worrying for? There were a couple of children in DS1's nursery class with the build of your DD - I know exactly the type of build you mean. Properly SOLID (probably genuinely "big-boned", I don't mean in the way that fat people call themselves "just big boned" LOL). One of the chidren in his class, a girl, looked in perfect proportion, she was just very tall, well-built and very strong and healthy looking. An alpha female in fact . Because of it she looked far older than she actually was. And acted like it too - she must have had a bigger brain too LOL, she was a clever little madam! Other girls in the class were teeny tiny little skinny minnies, but again, perfectly healthy, happy and clever little things.

When will HVs realise that usually it's just the way you're bloody built?!

gurglingagain · 20/06/2013 22:57

Ha! DS is 14 weeks, feeds pretty much as he should and is 99.6th centile length and only 9th in weight. He's otherwise very healthy and everyone comments on how alert and bright-eyed he is. HV is starting to get on our case a bit and had referred us to the GP. GP said don't worry he seems fine. Babies come in all shapes and sizes.

SinisterBuggyMonth · 22/06/2013 09:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AuntieStella · 22/06/2013 09:33

I've got skinny children.

The only important thing for your DS is that he stays hovering on the 9th centile, or that height/weight converge. If he started on a higher centile, then dropped, or drops consistently even lower, then there might be an issue. He does have an unusually large height/weight disproportion, and very low weight to height can be unhealthy.

NHS recommend some vitamins (eg D) for all under 5s now. I'd give a child-formulation multivitamin and just carry on with normal diet for now. He's only one; I'd just watch how he goes as he becomes more mobile.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page