My son has just turned 11. He was born on 50th %ile for height and weight, but weight gain didn't match height growth, but within normal bounds.
As a toddler he was chubbyish (not enormous) but he became very restrictive in his food intake around 18mo (after bad ear infections) and essentially weighed the same (on the scales) at 2 as he did at 4.5yo, though obviously his height increased.
Since then he has bumbled along around 50-30th for height, 9th for weight.
His father is v tall and slender (6'2", 12st 8), I am v short and in proportion (5'0", 7st12, 8/10 clothes). His elder sibling has always been 50th height, 30th weight, now at puberty she remains at those proportions, though I think she has got to her full height now.
I weighed him and did his height this week (he needed it for a science class in school)- he is bang on 25th/139cm height but his weight is only 27kg, around 5th %ile.
I am worried that his growth has slowed, and am not sure when it becomes a medical concern.
On the NHS BMI children tool he is "healthy weight"- but the very lowest in healthy category at 4th centile BMI! I am worried that as puberty approaches he will not have laid down enough energy stores for growth, and am not sure when medical input is recommended- is there a cut-off age or weight?
He still has a pretty restricted diet, and he doesn't eat huge amounts. He is pretty active (his school do games twice and pe once a week but he no longer does weekend sports because his interests lie elsewhere) but he has low stamina, and very little reserves. We had to stop his swimming lessons as he was utterly exhausted after, because it was same day as games lesson.
He goes to bed at 8:30 and gets up at 6:45, usually falls asleep about 15 minutes after lights off.
He's a healthy boy, rarely ever ill, but has a bunged up nose often, I think linked to cmp intolerance (his sister has multiple food intolerances, he had bad eczema as a baby, but now almost gone). The ear infections we're sorted by grommets when he was four, no repeat.
The restrictive eating is linked to sensory issues- he hates textures of many foods, and the taste of lots! He doesn't try new things either. He is the child that would rather starve than eat something he "can't". What he eats is reasonably nutritious for British children, and he doesn't eat much salt or sugar, so he's doing ok. (I have introduced a multivit in past six months that he has to take because he won't eat a wider variety, so I'm less stressed about deficiencies than I was).
He tends to choose one thing and eat that exclusively for breakfast for a couple of years. Lunch is at school (compulsory school lunch) and it's hit and miss how much he eats according to daily menu). Supper is 95% home cooked from scratch (to accommodate sister's intolerances) so spag bol, chili, roast, lamb tajine, chicken casserole etc. then an apple (the only fruit he eats) and yoghurt after.
He doesn't snack, the amounts he eats aren't stupidly small but not enormous either. He only drinks water, occasionally milk.