Weight Gain Worries

[arabellafigg1985]

Hello,

I am new to this site so not sure if this is the right place to post this or not...

My daughter will be one in two weeks. For the last six months she has trouble with weight gain in that she isn't gaining very much, if anything,when she is weighed fortnightly.

At present,she eats three good sized meals a day(e.g. weetabix and fruit, pasta veg sauce and milkypudding, fish potato peas and cheese/crackers with snacks in day too). She is also having three milk feeds (i am still breastfeeding)

In terms of weight she is on the second centile. She was 7lbs 9 born and is now 17lbs 6. She is on the 25th centile for her height and is 72cm.

I seem to be having constant battles with my health visitor. She has now told me to put cream/cheese/butter in anything i can to make her fatter. I do not want my daughter to gain the wrong kind of weight from these foods, as i think that in later life this will give her more health problems.

She isn't heavy enough for a stage 2 car seat, but is too long for her stage one. I dont know wether to be concerned, wether to give her lots of this stuff just to keep the health visitor off my back. I am a single parent and am myself naturally thin and i feel like i am being discriminated against and my health visitor makes me feel like i am not feeding her enough.

Help!

hi arabellafigg1985 i had the opposite problem with my little boy who is now 10 months. i was told constantly by my health visitor i was overfeeding him. which i wasnt they just made me feel like a bad mother. they are only guided by text book and not real life experience. i took my child to the doctor for advice and was told not to worry too much about the centile.it is only guidelines after all. i would probably do the same in your position because i would imagine plying her full of this type of food would not be good. but i dont know. sorry i wasnt much help. and good luck

I'm not an expert on this by any means, but from what you have said it seems obvious your DD is petite and meant to be that way. Her food sounds like a good amount for her age and healthy. If you are slim yourself she is obviously taking after you.

I wouldn't bother with the HV tbh, she is obviously talking nonsense.

No expert either and I would also echo what ladypinkofpinkerton says. Your dd obviously takes after you, and from what you've said she isn't dangerously underweight, just petite. She sounds like she has a good, healthy diet and certainly tucks away more than my 18mo(who is 23lb, for a comparison).

I'm a bit to hear what your HV is recommending. I wouldn't be going back.

Like the others I'm not an expert at all, but both my girls were very very slow growers from birth, despite having been pretty normal birth weights.

I am lucky with the health visitor advice I've had which has been very much to not panic.

Now, this isn't entirely the same problem as you are having, as with both of them things started to change when solids were introduced, so it seems that I produce skimmed milk as they both seemed to be good feeders. However, I think the general principle of letting nature take its course is the right one. Your daughter isn't losing weight. Don't get hung up on centiles (my youngest has only just joined the centiles again, having spent even longer off the graph than her big sister, and there's nothing wrong with either of them).

As I said, I'm not an expert but instinctively, I recoil from the idea of loading her up with saturated fats. I know that small children can afford to eat much more sat fat than adults, but I'd be nervous of long term health implications. But equally tiny ones can't eat enough carbs to gain that much weight so clearly the fats offer nice concentrated calories.

What about nuts and/or seeds, to complement the dairy stuff? Still high in fats but better quality ones.

I dunno - I think you should get a second opinion from a professional. Perhaps your GP could refer you to a paediatric nutritionist? Sorry, this is probably obvious. Anyway, good luck and definitely don't panic.

Hi Arabella
I could have written that post. I don't ever post on this site but just had to respond to let you know you are not alone. My daughter will be 16 month shortly and she is lucky if she is 18lbs, the last time she was weighed was early February and she was 16lb 10oz. My HV has given me grief since DD was 8 months old as she dropped from 9th centile to 2nd centile, which she has steadily remained on. Like your child she had 3 good solid meals plus various snacks, some days she eats more than others but in general eats reasonably well. Anyway my HV felt that this problem was such an issue that we were referred to the Sick Kids hospital in Glasgow where neither the paediatrician could find anything wrong nor the dietician. The dietician did advise us re cream, butter, olive oil etc and, wait for it.....to put sugar in her cereal. I just thought aye right I'm not loading her up on empty calories for the sake of fattening her up, she is built the way she is. Her dad is 6ft and of slim build and I am short and not hugely heavy, so its down to genetics. All my family tell me DD is a picture of health, she sleeps through the night, is happy, content and full of life, just not terribly big. I once read on here that centile charts were not something to aimed for and to be achieved, but merely a guide of where your child is in relation to the rest of the population, there are obviously enough kids on the 2nd and 9th centiles for those centiles to exist. BTW I was also breastfeeding but DD could take it or leave and was not fussed re milk of any kind. Please do not worry your child is an individual and trust your instincts. I have rambled on but I hope you know you are not alone and please try not to tie yourself up in knots of worry.

Thank you for the adivce. It is reassuring to know that this has happened to others and that she is just small!

as long as your child seems healthy would not worry .But then also dont worry about adding cream etc if you need to I do for my DD she has a diet that make lotof mums cringe but she does need the calorie even though she eats well but despite all this she remains very petite shes 6 and is only around 30lbs and average height of 4 year old though she make sup what lacking in attitude

Hi Arabella,

I am a HV too and although it pains me to disagree with a HV colleague (something I seem to do regularly though) I don't necessarily agree with your HV. Although I know I am writing without the benefit of seeing your DD,

Firstly, her food intake sounds great so don't worry about what you are giving her.

Secondly I am not sure what centile she was on at birth but I do know that the birth centile often bears no resemblance to the centile a child is following at 1 year. My experience and knowledge of centile charts is that weight falls on a particular centile and height will usually be one to two centiles above - so your DD is NORMAL. What is the build of you and your DD's father? Are you both (or either of you) tall and slim? If so she is just going to be the same (lucky girl ).

As a HV and let me tell you that other HVs drive me nuts over centile charts - in many cases they have had no training in interpreting them and I bet your HV is one of those - personally I would like to hold a mass burning of the bloody things - they seem to be a tool for winding up parents with - and nothing more.

I think your DD is following the build she is meant to be. If your HV is THAT concerned she should be referring your DD onto a paediatrician (who will write back with "no concerns expressed by Mum - healthy child") or a dietician. My advice based upon your post is that you sound like you are doing a great job just as you are. Carry on - oh and maybe stay away from this toxic HV.

I had same issue with ds1 - he was born on the 9th centile line and pretty much stayed there - still there at 8 - there is nothing wrong with him just small.
One HV told me to feed him crisps, cakes and chocolate to build him up!!! Needless to say i ignored that gem of advice

If you HV has that many concerns she should be referring to a paedatrician

Why are you taking her to be weighed every 2 weeks? I have a 2 year old and i m guessing he has been weighed about 6 times since birth. Its not necessary - stop taking her - if she is otherwise healthy and alert and progressing normally stop stressing yourself out and stay away from the HV

Hello again,

Jolly Pirate - she was on the 50th centile untill 6 months. Dad is 6'2 and average if not a bit overweight, while i am 5'7 and have always been very slim (i weigh 8 stone at present)HV is always threatening me with being referred, but she is 'just' within two centiles of her height/weight at the moment so she hasen't gone through with it yet.

Racmac - HV makes me attend the fortnightly sessions. We live in a small village and i fear if i do not come,she will hunt me down. She has threatened to do so on several occasions.

A lot of the other babies in the area are male, and bottle fed. I do wonder if HV is simply just comparing DD to them and yes, when sitting with them she is much smaller. But surely this is inevitable?

Yes, maybe i should stop taking her to be weighed. If she comes to hunt me down i can always hide!

Arabella - my dd was the same, but after I stopped taking her to be weighed (around the time she was 1) I stopped worrying, she grew and when she was weighed at her 2 1/2 year check, was back on the 50th. I have had my ds (now 1 yo) weighed 3 times and he is a skinny little thing, just like his sister.
I was a skinny baby too - sometimes that's just the way it is. I did add cream etc to food, for about 3 months (she didn';t gain any weight for 3 months0, she is still skinny, never really got fat.

Jollypirate - I wish you'd been my HV. I used to leave the baby clinic in tears. You sound informed and reasonable. The only place I found real support was MN.