4 year olds height/weight

[Emmzie2130]

My 4 year old son has recently been losing weight. Went from 17kg to 15kg in the last few months. He's always been a picky eater and barely sits still for meals so barely eats either. He takes a few bites of his meals and then says hes done and goes and plays.... (PLEASE give any and ALL tips on how to get my child to sit and eat because he won't listen if we tell him to sit and eat or give rewards etc it just doesnt work..)

We've also noticed he's growing slower too... he hasn't stopped but he was above the 50th percentile for height and now he's just above the 25th... (he's 102cm)

Any advice on what to do?

Also We've been to the drs and they've just told us to bring him back for re weighing/measuring in 4 weeks time.

(Prepared to get flamed here) have you tried giving food in front of TV? My 4 year old is always on the move but will sit and (mindlessly) eat if it’s a TV show he likes. I know it’s not the correct thing to do but if he’s losing weight I’d try that

I've tried this too... he always goes mindless too with TV but he doesn't eat if he's watching it so we stopped trying that

Google how to make food calorie dense. Things like adding cheese, nut butters, full fat yogurt to food he will tolerate.
A few treats won’t go amiss - homemade cakes if you want to avoid highly processed foods.
Ask GP for blood tests to rule out no underlying conditions.

That’s a hell of weight loss for a kid that age. Has his physical health been thoroughly checked out?

Can you feed him? Not ideal but needs must if he’s losing a lot of weight.

Test for coeliac

We have currently been doing that everything is high in calorie

Yes I know this is why I'm worried. The gp said to come back in 4 weeks to recheck and if it's still going down/isn't going up on the centiles then they'll do further checks

We've been doing this too but it's a bit hard as he's at nursery for half the day

Well, you can try making his food as calorie dense as possible, and giving him extra graze plates for whilst playing, but with that weight loss I'd be pushing for a paeds referral. Failing to gain weight because of being too busy playing to eat does happen, but actually losing that much? Unusual.