2 year old DS has lost weight - should I be worried

[strawberrycornetto]

DS is very small for his age. He is just over 2.1 and he was weighed in hopsital 3 weeks ago and he weighed 11 kilos (24.25 pounds)

In the last week, I have noticed that his trousers seem lose and we have had two nappy disasters where his pullups have just come off. They are the same size as previously. So I weighed him today and he was only 10.4 kilos. (23 pounds)

He has been a little bit unwell in the last couple of weeks, but this seems like quite a lot of weight to have lost to me. He was on the 9th centile and it puts him down to the 2nd. He was also weighed in January and he was 10.8 kilos then.

What do you think?

It's a tricky one, but typically a lot of two year olds can lose a little weight because they can become fussier about food around this age and I think also can be a bit more active as they get more agile. I think this also sounds like it has been compounded by your LO not being well. My friend has a dinky child as well - she is nearly 3 now and she was always at the low end on the centile chart, but she is fine. I also know of a few who have been like that as babies and ended up very tall or solid when they are older. I know it's difficult not to worry about weight in wee ones, but they are all so different. It's worth chatting to your HV if you are concerned.

Has your son been fussier over his food lately?

I haven't noticed him being fussy. He has stopped having special formula milk which he had because he was allergic to dairy and he is having normal milk instead because he has outgrown the allergy. I don't think he drinks enough milk, but otherwise he eats pretty well I think.

Yesterday he had the following

Breakfast - 1 x weetabix plus rice crispies, watered down apple and mango juice

Lunch - Granary cheese roll, ham, a few crisps and salsa (he likes it!), grapes and half a banana

Snack - Mini chocolate easter egg

Tea - Roast lamb, cubed normal potato and sweet potato, carrot, yorkshire pudding, a little bit of broccoli, gravy, raspberry trifle

Bedtime - fromage frais and some more diluted juice

Any thoughts? This is fairly typical on a non-nursery day.

I think the lack of milk could be a factor. I know that milk can really beef them up and I know that when wee ones are not eating enough but having too much milk mums are told to cut down on milk as it can really fill them up. Your situation seems to be a bit of the reverse.

His diet seems fine, it sounds to me it's just the absence of the milk making a difference - but I am no expert!

That roast dinner sounded fab btw!

I would say tho, and this is only in MHO that maybe cutting down on the juice would help as it's really bad for new teeth and can stop them getting a taste for water or milk which is really all dentists advise at this stage.

Funny you should say that. Yesterday was the first time that he'd really had fruit juice, and I wondered if it might help to make up for the lack of milk. Perhaps not!!

I might have to persevere with getting him to drink milk. That's the only thing that's changed really since January so I wonder if that is the problem.

You never know, it might be. Hope I didn't offend about the juice. Didn't mean to. I just know that once some get a taste for it - it's a bugger to get them on milk or water. There are a lot more nutrients in milk that would add weight to your DS than juice, but I undertand where you are coming from. It must be very difficult if he has had an allergy to it as I guess his association with it won't be the best. Worth persevering tho. Hope you have a good HV - see what she thinks.

I didn't take offence at all, I agree with you and given how much he liked it yesterday it could definitely be a problem if I let him have too much.

Am wondering about some kind of milkshare to encourage him to get the milk. We were under a dietician so I might ring up and ask for some advice, since they were happy for him to cut out his formula milk.

Yeah, I wonder if you could get away with it by sticking it in porridge, cereals etc where you can really mix it up. Be interesting to see what the dietician says!

I will let you know what they say. We have access to our local NHS team and the dieticians on the leap study, so between them I should be able to get some useful information.

I cooked him macaroni cheese for tea tonight which went down quite well, so I will just have to keep being creative to get the milk into him!