Took DS, aged 2.5 to GP - he says it's not normal to haved droped half a centile

[uberalice]

DS2 is 2.5 years old. I'd noticed that his poos are almost always quite loose and watery and with some undigested food in them, so I took him to our GP to get it checked out. At first he said it was not worth worrying about since he was obviously thriving. Then he decided to check his height and weight and compare it to the last measurements taken. At 10 weeks, he was bang on the 50th centile for both height and weight, and now he's somewhere between 50th and 25th. I don't think that's a particularly worrying drop. I'm quite small and DH isn't tall either, so I'd expect him to be smaller than average. But the doc thinks that it's abnormal to drop at all, so he's being referred for more tests.
I'm relieved that he's getting more tests, as I was a bit worried about his stools, but now I'm more worried that the doc doesn't think he's growing enough. The doc agrees that he looks fine, so surely, if he has something wrong with him, the failure to thrive would be much more apparent?
Advice welcome.

Well he'd freak with my DS then who was also born on the 50th but is now on the 6th!!!

good god, what would he have said to my DS2 who dropped off the entire chart by 4mths, after being born on the 50th centile!!!

He is obviously good for referring you, but to state that any drop is abnormal, is well, abnormal of the docs attitude.

one thing tho, for all his poo probs, he is obviously thriving and doing well to 'only' have dropped a little bit........he is still clearly gaining weight

I think its positive that you took him before his weight /height dropped any further!

I've just checked on my charts at home. He's still roughly on 50th for height, but hovering above 25th for weight. Still, surely that's not a huge drop!
Thanks for all your reassurance. I'm sure I've read over and over again on tiktok's posts that babies take a while to settle onto a natural centile. I wonder at what age that tends to happen? His weight was still on the 50th centile when he was 9 months old which is the last time I took him to the clinic.
I'm off out shortly, but will read any more messages when I get back.

Don't want to unduly concern you but does he have a bit of a pot belly and suffer from wind badly too?

The reason I ask is that my DS1's poos were always a bit suspect when he was a toddler. He also had a bloated tummy and suffered badly with tummy ache on a night. After losing weight quite dramatically (but keeping the belly) and showing other symptoms like vomiting, lethargy, nasty diahorea etc he was given a blood test and found to have coeliac disease (gluten intolerance). He has followed a gluten-free diet since and is now a happy, healthy and extremely active 10 year old.

Just thought it might be worth knowing about and mentioning to your doctor if they haven't already mentioned it to you. Quite a lot of people go undiagnosed with this condition.

Agree that although I wuldn't want you to be overly worried,this does need to be investigated now .
If he did have coeliac disease or other cause of failure to thrive,then it would continue and his growth would also slow and this might take longer to recover from,so I'm glad your gp has referred you.

Yes, I realise that it's better that this is checked out sooner rather than later. And the fact that it's not caused too much of an effect with his height / weight has to be a good thing.
NikkiH, not sure about the pot belly - perhaps a little bit after he's eaten? I've not noticed excessive wind.
Anyhow, the sooner he gets checked out, the better. Thanks for all your comments.

Not in any way medically qualified and your GP knows your and your child, so sure, referral is probably good, if just for the stools issue. BUT he hasn't actually lost weight, has he? He's just moved away from a line on a graph, a bit, but is still growing and, as far as you can tell, developing within the normal range. My best understanding of how those charts should be used, is that alarm bells start ringing if a child crosses two centile lines, but even that can be misleading in the absence of any other symptoms or problems. Your DS is nowhere near that.

But, referral should set your mind at rest at least, whether that's through finding a problem or finding no problem! Good luck.

I think the comment about dropping centiles is barmy. However I also think it's a good thing to get your DS's digestive system checked out by a specialist ASAP, so if the GP's dodgy ideas about centiles gave him the push he needed to refer you to the specialist then hurrah for barminess...