any advice on seeing a pediatrician for my under-weight 13 mo old?

[oregonianabroad]

He was born early at 35 weeks, weighing 5.9. He was bf'ed, and seemed to do well at weaning, but has been dropping down the centiles chart, and was put on infatrini in January. Hasn't been putting on weight, and is now losing interest in foods as well. His dose of infatrini has been increased from 200mls a day to 400mls.

Seeing the dr on Thursday, was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions of what to ask/expect from the dr?

Thanks

He'll probably tell you that if he's eating well and meeting his developmental targets there's nothing to worry about.

ds2 was on 75th centile for height but 2nd for weight at one stage

Now he's nearly 13 and the reason I'm tapping away on mn is that he and his brother are out playing rugby!

He's naturally slim - unlike ds1 who is more my sort of build.

Everyone is different. I can remember being really worried all the time when they were little.

I don't know anything about infatrini though - sorry.

My dd saw a dietician at the hospital for being very underweight and a fussy eater when she was about 16months old.

I'd followed the HV advice of "don't give in to her being fussy/don't offer an alternative, she won't starve herself, etc"

Then watched the weight fall off.

The dietcian told me to ignore the HV and give dd whatever she wanted to eat even if it was chips at every meal as the most important thing was to get her weight back up and not to make meal times a battle. So for the next year all she ate was chips and custard - nothing else. I didn't fuss, just cooked her chips all the time.

Funnily enough she hardly eats chips now and can't stand custard. She's 7 and eats a varied diet - plenty of fruit and quite a bit of veg. She's still skinny but not worryingly so anymore.

thanks for your replies. very reassuring, fortyplus, and interesting response from your dietician, stripey. he has been eating nothing but grapes and a bit of cheese this last week; however, yesterday his appetite picked up and he ate a normal meal with us.

god, they are such a worry, aren't they??!!

bump?

My dd saw a dietician for her poor weight gain throughout her baby/toddler years. She has a heart problem and needs loads of calories just to stay at a stable weight. Like Stripey we basically fed dd whatever she would eat - even if it was the same thing at most meals. She had a phase where she lived on just macaroni cheese - and then just beige food. lol that was fun! I made every effort to load calories into what she would eat - so porridge made with double cream, lots of cheese etc.

dd had fortifiers in her milk and on her food; maxijul and calogen. It was a good few years ago and they seem to offer infatrini now instead of these although you can still get them.

Thanks, Saggarmakers.

He has already seen a dietician to get the infatrini, now he has been referred to pediatrician for poor weight gain, I guess to determine if there is an underlying cause.

Sorry if I have missed it but how much does he weigh and how old is he? My dd2 is very skinny and although we've seen paediatricians and dietician they have not been much help to be honest. Although I think dd2 is only slighlty underweight she was born big and then rapidly descended down the charts....It is a real palaver to get her to eat and we can't give her extra calories through milk as she only drinks lactose free milk. Mainly through choice initially they thought she had dairy allergies then they thought she was coeliac now they think she's just skinny... I know I shouldn't but I feed her lots of bad things to try to get her weight up. I keep the elusive 2 stone in my head as being a day for celebration if she ever achieves it. She is almost 2 but only weighs 11kg, I think that's about 24 lbs. She is quite tall but has very skinny arms and legs...I must find out what you can put on the food as I think that would be helpful.

keevamum - maxijul is a powder that you can sprinkle on/mix with food.

oregoniana - was your ds in hospital recently or am I mixing you up with someone else?

yes, he was; he had an operation to correct his foreskin (hypospadia).

he's fine now and recovered really well from the op.

hi
my 2nd child was ftt and we regularly saw a paed for weighing in sessions. she was given something to supplement my breastfeeding (cant' remember what it was called, I didn't use it) She did have blood tests a few tiimes as well to rule any disorders or conditions out as well. she is a very 'little' girl now (3), our 19m old pretty much weighs the same as her! She still doesn't like to eat much and what she eats is quite healthy stuff (doesn't like sweet things) She is very active and healthy tho. Some kids are just smaller and skinnier than others. hope all goes well at the appt later

my dd1 has always been a very poor eater was reffered to peadiatrician who i found very unhelpfull, he kindly told me that kids need to eat to grow!! really are you sure i didnt know i had to actually feed her!!!

they did loads of tests to make sure it was nothing physical, e.g blood, urine, sweat. i was then refferred to a nutritonalist for advise and although she was lovely and very sympathetic i dont need a doctor to tell me sausages are fattening i need some one to show me how to get her to eat!!

make sure you think of anything you want to ask before you go and let them know what you expect. my dd1 is still a vey poor eater she stopped eating at all not long ago for about ten days she just picked at food, thankfully we got over this and she is now eating about one good meal a day which is good for her

Dd1 was on the 2nd percentile at birth (34wks,4lb 1oz) and by her due date had dropped to below the 0.4th percentile where she pretty much stayed until she was 3 and a half when she went back up to the 9th. She was tested for all sorts,weighed all the time and we were stressed right out. At 10yrs she is now 5 and a half stone and eats for britain. My other 3 are all small too,despite them all starting at a good weight. They are all different - if she's happy,healthy and reaching her milestones then thats really all that matters. Have you tried keeping a food diary?

Thanks, all. Sounds like he will likely grow out of it -- am trying to make a list of things to ask the pediatrician, who I am hoping is just going to want to rule a few things out.