How do I find out how much my dd should weigh?

[QuackQuackQuackQuack]

She is 17 months and 80cm tall

Theres a chart in your red book that will give you where she is on centile if you weigh her

Look in your red book (one hv gave you). Her height and weight percentiles should be pretty similar. If her weight %tile is quite high compared to her height %tile, she may be overweight.

I dont understand the centile things, no one has ever explained them to me

if you put your daughters details into here it will tell you where she is.

They're easy

Just work out her weight in kilograms

Find the line that is 17 months (it's a pale unnumbered line) just before the one that says 18 months.

Put her weight on the chart there.

See what line she's on (middle - 50th centile, bottom 0.4th centile or top 98th centile) and how it compares to her heinght centile.

They're usually fairly similar.

But as to what her weight "should" be - it really depends on trends over time so one snap shot at 17 mo ths shouldn't make you panic.

A good rule of thumb is that she should probably be somewhere around the same line she was born on (unless she was very prem or had a pre-birth growth problem)

When she was born she was on the 50th centile.

Since birth she has been moving up and was on the 98th centile on her 1st birthday. I remember the midwife saying she was probably meant to be a bigger baby than she was although I had no birth/growth problems.

I last had her weighed on her 1st birthday and she was on the 98th centile which is where I think she is now, does that sound ok?

But I just checked her height which I think is still on the 50th centile, so that doesnt sound good does it

I think the only way to find out is go and get her weighed

Try not to be too concerned about her weight - just look at her overall food intake and activity levels and adjust those if necessary.

She should be having 3 meals a day and 2 snacks.

Portion size is the key - there are two other threads going at the moment about this.

And snacks such as cakes/biscuits/crisps/wotsits are not really needed at 17 months so I doubt if that's a problem.

Drinks can be an issue - water should be the main drink with a cup of milk twice or three times a day if she likes it (about 20oz is suggested but this can include yoghurt so may be much less).

And activity-wise she should be running about all day everyday! Inside and outside. Take her swimming and to the park.

No sitting on the sofa watching TV eating a bag of crisps!

plus i bet she is pretty active at 17 months, that would stall the weight gain somewhat.
do they do 18 month checks with hv in your area?

I dont think so Slarty.

We never have cakes, biscuits or crisps in the house so the only time she has these is outside the house. She has one biscuit a week after Rhymetime and maybe a couple more at my mums house. She has never eaten whole packet of crisps just one or two from someones elses packet.

She eats a lot of fruit though and I do worry about the sugar.

She also eats bread as it seeems to fill a hole between meals, its wholemeal seeded bread normally with a spread of houmous on it, is that bad?

She never watches TV as she doesnt sit still for longer than 5 minutes.

I just worry as she does have a big tummy

The big tummy is normal for toddlers - as they grow taller and into children rather than toddlers their body shape changes and their abdominal muscles strengthen and hold that pot belly in!

You sound as though you are doing everything just right - the only other thng is milk/juice intake?

She's not having gallons of that every day is she?

She only has water, she hasnt tried juice yet.

She has one bottle of milk in the morning and then one cup in the afternoon

She sounds just fine, a lovely healthy dc - no need to worry!

She'll grow taller I bet - and that tummy will disappear when she is between 2 & 3.

BTW height should be lying down length at this age - not standing height! So she may be tallet than you thnik

I think she must be taller than that as everybody says she tall for her age

Well there you go then!

What is generally expected is that height and weight are roughly in proportion - so if you don't know exactly how tall she is it's hard to make any comment about what weight she "should" be.

And at her age 80cms must be average-ish? I think 84cms is average for 2 year olds - look on the girl's height centile chart in your red book?