Child not growing - any experience?

[Greenrailings]

My 3.5yo boy is noticeably small, but I've just realised that hasn't grown at all since at least last December (he's 92cm). I've requested a GP appointment but I'm in a bit of an anxiety spiral!

He was a chunky baby - 75th centile - but his weight gain started tapering off around 9 months old. He went down to between the 25th and 9th centile, where he appeared to have settled. This latest height measurement puts him at just over 2nd centile.

We're a tall family - I'm 5'11" and his dad is 6ft. Our elder child is above average height. I've felt that something was not right with our son's growth for a couple of years and I've flagged it at least twice with the GP, but I was just told not to worry.

An extra bit of context is that he has eczema - on the advice of a GP, his diet is now dairy-free. Although this has really improved his skin, he's never been tested for food allergies. I'd much prefer to give him dairy again because of the easy calories and protein provided by full fat yoghurt and milk, cheese etc.

I've read somewhere that, if he has a growth delay, he won't make up for missed growth? I feel so guilty to think that he may not grow as tall as he 'should' be, because I haven't been pushier about my concerns.

Does anyone have any experience or advice that might help?

Ask the GP to test for Coeliac

I was also coming to say get him tested for coeliac disease.

Same- coeliacs, push for bloods

I had one like this but worried for nothing. He's over 6 ft now. He did have a bowel issue, though we didn't discover that till later.

Have a look at the Child Growth Foundation, which provides a lot of information about different growth conditions.
Absolutely investigate. But don't blame yourself, frankly if it is something then even if he needs treatment he would make up for it.
My son's growth was flat for at least a year before he was diagnosed with pituitary condition and with growth hormone injections he got back to his centile quickly. Not saying it will come to that, but you just need to keep pushing for answers until you're satisfied.

Test for coeliac, as others have said.

Another one coming to suggest coeliac screening test for sure.

Thanks for these replies. Would he have any other symptoms with coeliac disease? Apart from the eczema, he's fine - no gastro symptoms etc.

I'll definitely take a look at the Child Growth Foundation, thanks for the recommendation.

@BlackSwan did you have to be pushy with docs? I'm bracing myself for being made to feel like a neurotic mum!

Yes I had to be pushy - took me way way too long to get a diagnosis: trips to a number of different doctors over a long period. For sure I was viewed as neurotic. But when you know something isn't right, you have to be persistent. I hope you get answers you're satisfied with soon. Some kids are just small & with other kids there's a reason.

Keep on insisting on answers. My colleague's son was investigated at 13 years old and they found he had a brain tumour that was affecting his growth.

My daughter was TINY (she also had other issues such as heartburn, headaches, “toddler diarrhoea”, as well as not growing as she should have been) and she has been diagnosed as coeliac. Are there any other health issues that your child has? It is worth a GP visit to see if a blood test is required to rule this out.

Currently have this with my son OP. He is about to turn 3 and stopped growing normally at 10 months and just grows a tiny amount. Just in 18 month clothes now and I should be buying him 3 year old stuff.

i had a lot of fobbing off. GP didn’t want to know and was unbelievably patronising. In the end my health visitor got a community paeds referral and that got him in the system and over to endocrine. They had a huge panic about his head size not growing and must have measured his head about 30 times.

That all took ages so we took him privately for first sets of tests. We have spent thousands but worth it. The private specialist could not believe how shit our local nhs was.

We still don’t have any answers and we are awaiting the growth hormone test and results from DNA testing. It’s stressful everyday.

My GP complaint was worth framing I think.

Good luck OP and feel free to PM me if you want to.

In regards to other symptoms for coeliac, it varies wildly. So my son is 10 now and was diagnosed last year when his gastro symptoms began before that zero bowel problems but has always had very slow growth and headaches and fatigue and skin problems his whole life which I had no idea would be connected. Now after diagnosis I can look back and see that it was all linked and all coeliacs symptoms.

My daughter has multiple food allergies, reflux and had toddler diarrhoea. Between 1 and 2 fell from the 25th percentile for length to the 1st for height even though she stayed on the 25-50th percentile for weight. She was in aged 9-12 months clothes for nearly 18.months!
She had various tests but found she was most probably just small big caveat here is I was only on the 2nd percentile as a child and am only 5ft2 as an adult.

I would ask for a dietician referral for support in testing the dairy allergy/intolerance and if a dairy free diet is advised support in ensuring that they are still getting everything they need. My daughter has 20 food allergies including dairy and are able to still meet her needs. We have to make sure she gets about 500ml of high fat and fortified oat milk. We use oatly barista. Her growth is influenced by her diet too, she's often not the best eater and we have seen a bigger impact on her height than we have her weight. Over the last year aged 4 she's started to eat more reliably and has moved from the 1st to 4th percentile for height even though she dropped from the 35th to 15th percentile for weight!