Toddler with slow growth and soft stools

[thebearandthemare]

I feel exhausted with worry about my 2.5 year old LO. From about 7 months, he has gained weight very slowly with a couple of periods of static weight. He took ages to get into eating solids which used to worry me terribly and now he’s ok with food but quite fussy.

I have seen HVs (pre-COVID) who felt there was nothing to worry about then managed to see the doctor who ran some checks and a blood test. These were fine (apart from one borderline inflammation result from a stool sample but re-tested with no issues). At my insistence, the GP made a hospital referral but this was bounced back as the consultant didn’t feel it was necessary!

So now we’re at the point where I don’t know whether my worrying is valid or not. He has always, always had loose sticky poos (currently the consistency of hummus but were even runnier when BF- sorry TMI!) and has just about dropped two centile spaces for weight- from just between 50th-75th at one weigh in to just above 9th centile now. His height was recorded as almost 75th centile at 6weeks (not sure how accurate that was) to just above 9th centile now. He doesn’t outgrow his clothes quickly and although seems healthy in other ways, I worry that there’s something underlying this slow growth. He looks so tiny to me.

Sorry for rambling- does anyone have experience of slow growth in young children? Does anyone’s child have consistently loose stools and what is the cause? I’d really appreciate your thoughts as I’m struggling to know if I’m over anxious or not being forceful enough about this all with the GP.

Has he been tested for gluten intolerance? I’d go back to the GP and talk through your concerns again.

If he is dropping centiles I'm surprised they aren't willing to look into it. I'd keep on at the GP.

@Lawnpop I would need to check that. He did have quite extensive blood tests but I’m not sure if that was tested for specifically.

Thank you both, I think I’ll need to push it a bit more. The GP was largely unconcerned by the charts I felt, I had to put them right infront of her and show his weight records. I think an element of it was that it has happened so gradually and I am very low weight myself (and always have been). I really struggle to gain weight.