Very sorry - another worrier about babys weight!

[keels26]

My dd is 13 months and weighs 30 pounds. She has always been chubby but now the hv is asking me what she eats, and is talking about referring her to a dietician! Am going to give you an idea of what she eats, any tips or criticism is welcome.
Breakfast - bowl of readybrek with normal milk, sometimes toast(only eats half a slice)
Lunch - sandwich with cheese or dairylea (again only eats half), fromage frais
Dinner - What we have eg spag bol,jacket potato, meat and veg etc (just has a little plateful - doesnt always finish it), fruitpot
She sometimes has some raisins or a baby biscuit as a snack, and has a full bottle of milk before bed. Am I giving her to much? When I took her to hv she had put on 2lb in 9 weeks, which I didnt think was too bad. Also, she is very tall, between 98 and 99th centile. Shes a beautiful little girl and an absolute angel, would hate to think there was something wrong with her and I didnt know. Is it possible for a baby to have an underactive thyroid or am I just worrying for nothing? Help please!(sorry its so long!)

is her weight proportionate to her size? if it is then i wouldn't worry. what she eats seems fine - does she still have a lot of milk too?

My DS (2.8) weighs a lot but he is not fat (you can see his ribs). he was 20lbs at 20weeks and now weighs 2stone 13 but he's 3foot 3.

how much does you HV reckon she should weigh?

She only drinks one bottle of milk, if she had any during the day she wouldnt eat her next meal so I cut it out and she has one before bed. Not sure how much she should weigh, she is just above the last centile line, but only just.

Her diet sounds fine to me. Toddlers are supposed to be chubby! Also I've just looked in my red book and I think your dd is just above the 99th centile right? In which case she is perfectly in proportion with her height and your hv is talking out of her hat. As long as your daughter is well and happy don't bother about this!

Sorry cross-posted - she should weighht what she weighs! My understanding of centile charts is that 99% of babies will weigh less and be shorter than your dd. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with that - just that all the population vary - so my dd3 has always been on the 50th centile for length - which means that 50% of babies are the same height or shorter than her and 50% are longer. Doesn't mean she is too short just thats where she fits in the greater scheme of things. Likewise she's on the 25th centile for weight - so 75% of babies will be heavier than her. The 50th centile is a record of how babies are - not a target to be aimed at - although some hv's go on about it you'd never know that!

Thanks, your posts are reassuring. Didnt know that was what centile lines represent. My ds was chubby as a baby but he was VERY active, crawled at 4 mths, walked at 10, ran about 2 days after that! Shes much more placid (which I thinks great!) and didnt crawl until 10/11 mths, and only just started walking in last few weeks. Am hoping she will keep weight stable now shes more active.

How mobile is she? Is she walking? The chances are she start to use up the weight when she starts becoming an active toddler. That's normal.

oh just read your last post

Glad you are feeling better - personally I wouldn't go near the HV again for many, many months!

Thanks everyone, am supposed to get her weighed again in 3 mths, so will avoid until then. Hvs advice was to take her to the park and let her run around! Did inform her that she has only just started walking!

Really don't stress about it. DS is 12 mths and big (weighs 28lbs). Until recently his height and weight were v out of proportion and HV had me jumping through all sorts of hoops - referred me to GP (who said nothing wrong), HV asked me to come back to discuss portion control, then sent community nurse round for follow-up chat .... and so it went on, aargh!!

He has now grown over 4 cm in last 8 wks and has dropped a pound so now everyone is happy but it is madness. He's not yet moving, and both DH and I were big babies that grew into healthy 'normal' children once we got moving so the odds are he'll be the same.

I got myself in quite a stress about it until I posted on here and had lots of MNers reply with some wise & comforting words then I felt much better - hopefully, this thread is doing the same for you.

On a final note, the GP told me that babies that failed to put on weight and thrive were cause for concern but 'the reverse was rarely true' ...

Thanks Lola, do feel better after everyones advice. She is a very healthy baby, has only ever had a few colds, and thankfully nothing else. Am going to carry on as I have been and not let it worry me. Thanks again.

Just had the hv come for my son's one year check. She said he was over weight as he was not on the right line on the chart. She never took his hight she just said he was over weight and to not up his portion sizes. He has always been a big boy and been walking for about three weeks. He has either a small bowl of cearel or toast. For lunch half a sandwich and a fromage. A snack a piece of fruit and whatever we are eating for dinner. Have been weening him off his fomular milk and giving him cows milk instead. My son is one and 2ft seven inches and weighs just over 2lbs. He does not finishes all his food and know im worried im doing something wrong. He is a happy healthy baby but now im terrified im doing something wrong. My hv is comming back in two months to see if he has lost weight im at my wits ends now as i dont know what to do.

My DD is also on the 99th percentile for weight and the 95th for height at 9 months and I have read everything I can find on this and can't find any reason to worry. From what I have read the weight of a child up to 2 years is not necessarily indicative of adult weight, but the height is more of an indicator so she'll probably be a tall adult. In very rare cases a height at the 99.6th percentile may be indicative of rare thyroid problems, so there is a point in doing some further tests in such cases, but this is just for height, at this percentile only and it is still rare.

My DS is off the top of the chart for his weight. However, he is also off the top of the chart by exactly the same amount for his height and head circumference. Not fat, just HUGE. My DH id 6ft5 so it's not that much of a surprise.

Am a bit at you HV not comparing your DS' weight to his height chrissymac. If I tried to get DS down to the 50th centile I'd probably make him really ill, he'd be very underweight.

She sounds as if she is in proportion, OP. I really don't think a baby this age needs a dietician. If you are at all worried, keep her portions the same and she will become more slender as she becomes more active and grows taller - as she is bound to do in the next few months.

My dd is 14mo and that sounds pretty much what she eats - plus I know when she's with the childminder she gets far more too !!

She is a chubby, healthy, proportioned little girl (think she on 75% percentile).. I haven't taken her near a HV or weigh in since her 12mo check up and if I was you I would do the same..

They need fuel and they need the chub at the moment.. my dd is never happier than when she's grazing on whatever she can get her hands on food wise!

Personally I would be insulted by HV suggesting dietician and would tell her where to go and trust your own instincts.

Someone told me once that HVs have no real training or qualifications...so it's essentially like some bloke in the pub telling you how to look after your kids. Your DD's diet sounds very healthy and if she's well, I would keep on being a good mother and ignore idiot HVs

(PS I did have one good HV, who had done extra training in sleep therapy, and she proved it by putting DS1 to sleep in the living room in 20 mins! )

OAM that isn't true to be able to be a health visitor your would need to be a fully qualified nurse and then do extra training. I know this because a friend of mine looked into being one.

keels my DD3 has just had her 18 month check and is on the 50th centile for weight and the 9th for height. The health visitor didn't say anything just that she was fine developmentally. My DD2 on the other hand is 25th centile for both and they eat exactly the same.

DD3 is 2.6 and weighs 23 lbs. I had been steering clear of the HV just in case she went beserk but she came anyway to do her 2.5 year review and didn't bat an eyelid. Look at your DD- does she look fat? Does she have rolls over her wrists and legs? Does she have several double chins? Can you feel her ribs?

HV have to 'investigate' if there is more than 2 centile lines between the height & weight, or so I'm led to believe. If she is tall, she shouldn't be considered overweight and I expect that as soon as she starts to run about, she'll seem a bit more 'in proportion'.

I was also told that milk products 'pike the weight on' so if you're concerned, perhaps replace milk/cheese with a more carb heavy item, like banana for example.

For what its worth, my HV panicked me hugely when my DD was a few weeks old because she lost a little weight at 3wks & went back to her birth weight. They wanted me to think about topping up with formula etc despite my DD being perfectly healthy & on the same centile as her birth weight pretty much until she started solids. As it happens, she also started being sick a lot at 3wks, a factor they continuously ignored. In the end I ignored them & found what things in my milk made her sick & stopped eating them!!

Go with your instinct - HV can offer good advice at times, but they have to follow 'policy' & it isn't always right for your DC.

Hiya, my DD2 got referred to a paediatrician around that age for 'excessive growth'. At that stage, if there was such a thing, she was about 102%ile for height and about 120%ile for weight!

I had been getting grief from HV, docs etc... One of the things the paediatrician was very clear on was that there was no need to focus on her weight at all until she was at least 3 or 4 years old.

She said especially with tall babies any difference in their weight is visually magnified, if that makes sense, and not to worry or take on board any references to diet as long as I was offering her a range of food.

It was very reassuring to hear that!

Incidentally a year on DD2 has grown into her weight, she is still super tall (taller than DD1 was at three!) but is no heavier so looks much more in proportion. I still feed her the same things :)

The family nurse told my daughter to cut back on the puddings,he didnt even have that many,and certainy wasnt cubby,just had a bit of a belly,i told her to ignore her and carry on with what she is doing,she is doing well,and now she came to weigh him this week,he is 14 months and 28lb and she said oh hasnt he slimmed down,i thought yes because he is walking now,not because of the desserts.ie yoghurts and fruit ? and he is tall for his age anyway.

DS is 16m and 30lb+ (99th) but also 99th for height.

As long as the two vaguely match up I really wouldnt worry about it.

We've never had any issues raised from HV or GP - all comment he is a lovely big healthy boy

had the same problem with dd, she was off the chart and had to be weighed every month for 3 months. she was refered to the gp for weight issues, the gp took one look at her and said he wasn't suprised looking at her lenght