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Children's health

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Original poster

Underweight three year old, should I worry?

9 replies

cockles · 29/07/2009 09:35

Ds is three and seven months, 98cm and 13 kilos, as he has been for ages. The NHS BMI calculator puts this at 1st centile and 'underweight'. I don't really want to discuss with our HVs who we haven't seen since he was one - should I worry and in any case what can I do? He has plenty of energy, though is very bad tempered, eats a reasonable amount & I was skinny too. What do you think?

OP posts:

kateecass · 29/07/2009 09:45

He's exactly the same weight as my skinny, HEALTHY 3.1 year old. Well actually DS is 12.3kg. Think he is 95 cm. He eats a lot..think he has same metabolism as DH and family

DH is a Dr, so pretty sure he is healthy. I don't think he is under 1st centile just off to check in his red book.

theyoungvisiter · 29/07/2009 09:47

I have never weighed DS1 since he was about a year but he must be about that - he is extremely skinny and noticeably lighter than all his friends, and he still fits in to some of his 18-24 month clothes.

Not sure what you can do about it other than make sure he has plenty of high energy food and fats in his diet - olive oil on pasta, butter on bread, cheese etc. (A cheering aside - there was a recent study showing that children who ate lots of dairy were healthier as adults in spite of the higher amounts of cholesterol they were consuming).

DS1 eats ok and has plenty of energy and his dad has the metabolism of a shrew so I put it down to that and don't worry. If I thought it was impacting on his health I would be concerned but he is healthy as a horse.

lou031205 · 29/07/2009 10:01

Did you 'play' with the calculator? You will see that if he was just 300g heavier, he would be 'healthy'. I really don't think 300g is enough to worry about - your scales could be inaccurate by at least that much

AMumInScotland · 29/07/2009 10:02

If he's got a similar build to you or DP at that age, is eating ok, weeing and pooing ok, plenty of energy, not getting lots of bugs, etc, then I'd say don't worry about it, though maybe keep an eye on him to make sure he puts on at least a bit of weight after 3 or 4 moths.

My DS has this build - he's now 5 ft 10 and the same shape as a beanpole, but it's just the way he is (men on both sides of the family have that shape until they reach their 20's).

theyoungvisiter · 29/07/2009 10:09

Lou makes a good point - 300g could also be a wee, or a big poo, or a cup of milk.

If you gave him a drink and then reweighed him chances are he would be fine.

But I think it's the bigger picture that is important - his health, his energy levels etc.

bandgeek · 30/07/2009 02:07

My dd is similar. I weighed and measured her yesterday and she is 13kgs and 92cms - she is just very petite! She is 3.4 and still wears trousers for a 12-18 month old!

I'm 5'10" so goodness know where she gets it from

mummytopebs · 30/07/2009 08:18

My dd is 4.5 and weighs 12 kg she has always had failure to thrive and had every weird and wonderful test going but to no avail, she is just skinny x

leisurely · 17/08/2009 11:52

Me too. 8.4 daughter, 21.3kg and 127cm. Doctors keep telling me she is underweight but I can't do a thing about it. One did say that it was better to be under than over and she is healthy.

claireybee · 17/08/2009 12:01

DD is 3.3, 90cm and 12.5kg. Is the bmi calculator designed for children?

DD seems very healthy and I am small so I don't worry about it, just give her food whenever she is hungry, cheese on everything (actually only because I do that for me ) and she still drinks milk every day for extra fat.

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