ok, I know we're not supposed to create ishooos around food, but I would like some advice re a chunky toddler

[PerkinWarbeck]

my DD is one, and very chubby. She is of course beautiful, but has a very large belly, and very chubby arms and legs. she now needs clothes aged 18mo-2 to fit her belly, but these are long on the arms and legs.

the not entirely helpful centile charts tell me she is between 75-91st for height, and 98 for weight.

she was BLWed, and now has normal dinners. She eats a lot, and doesn't seem capable of leaving anything on the plate! she also has 7oz milk am and pm, plus a cup of milk (full fat cows milk) in the afternoon. no juice, cakes, biscuits.

She is very active, crawling and cruising non-stop all day.

If it's of any relevance, I broadly feed her what I feed myself, and I'm a tall size 14-16.

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here - I guess some reassurance that I'm doing all I can to support DD to be healthy. Any tips gratefully appreciatef.

that was longer than i thought it would be . thanks to those reading!

Sounds alright to me. People including toddlers aheve different body shapes. Some are made to be larger than others.

If she's active and happy and getting good fresh food then I wouldn't be concerned about that ratio of weight and height.

It'll change through different phases anyway.

I don't think the ratio is too way out tbh. She is tall and heavy. That is fine. She is never going to be exactly 84th centile for both. She might be due a growth spurt.

Are you saying that you feed her the same portion sizes as yourself?

if she isn't eating loads of junk [ie loads of chips or cakes] then I wouldn't think there is anything to worry about, certainly not so early in her development. Toddlers change so much anyway at that stage. I certainly wouldn't curtail her eating.

My DD was very chunky at a year old, exclusively breastfed to 6 months and BLW and now at 18 months she has slimmed down a lot.

My DD nearly outgrew her night nappies (birth to potty cloth ones) as her belly and thighes were so fat, now I have had to make them smaller again

Don't worry chunky active babies are normal.

LOL bozza! no, not the same sized portions as me. though she will happily eat more than other children of her age. I am concerned about portion size, but had been led to believe that children of her age stop when full.

my DS was very chunky at age 1 - he was beautiful and plumptious!

He was also totally static and walked very late - 17 months and i have noticed since then he is getting leaner but still has a lovely toddler pot belly

your DD sounds just right IMP

my friend's wee girl always had to get clothes a year older because of her delicious tummy, it was just her shape really. in fact, her mum got a bit glum when it disappeared (at about 4) because it meant her wee baby was definitely gone. i never noticed it, to be honest, because she was a tall girl, just with a plumptious tum.

x-posted on plumptious! what were the chances?

LOL at plumptious! i love it - such an apt word IMO

I was slightly taken aback at that idea but it was just the way that you mentioned your own size that made it cross my mind. TBH it just sounds like she has a healthy appetite and it might still change while she is that age.

My DS is 7, and he was a fat baby and chunky toddler with a good appetite. He went through an awkward stage (probably mild in comparison to others) at age 2-3 ish. Now at 7 he is smallish, skinny but still eats lots of a wide range of foods.

ds was really shunky when he was a toddler he was at the very top centile in the red baby book regards weight and he was always in the age group of clothes above his age sometimes two age groups up

he is six and still eats the same but is really realy skinny, so i wouldn;t worry once they start running around at school and nursery the weight will drop off

Maybe cut out the cow milk. If she's getting plenty of food she doesn't need milk. Baby animals tend to stop drinking milk when eating real food, its just hmans that carry on.
But she sounds just fine for one. If she was 3 and rather chubby I'd be worried.

bozza - what I meant to write was that DD has small portions of that same sorts of home-cooked foods that I eat, and as I'm not orca-fat, I'm reasonably sure these can't be too unhealthy.

NMC - interesting. I had thought about this, or perhaps moving onto semi-skimmed. HV will be of no use on this (or other) matter. Do you have anymore info about this?

PS thanks everyone for your reassurances! think I was having a wobbly moment after bagging up another batch of hardly-worn, outgrown clothes for the charity shop.

Just out of interest, what are the benefits of full fat against semi, if they are eating cheese and yoghurts and the like?

I'd disagree. If the child is eating lots and a good weight/height then she hardly needs the calories from milk. As for vit d - sunshine and eggs.
But then I think drinking milk secreted by another animal is rather weird. All my kids were raised as vegans and all healthy.

Really don't worry about this. She will slim down when she starts walking, running climbing.
I would second the idea of perhpas dropping some of the milk though 20oz or so of milk a day is a lot. - don't do semi-skilled milk (IT IS THE DEVILS JUICE, not nearly as tasty, not as nutritious and my guess is that you compensate for lower fat by taking more fat in your other food). Could you replace the morning bottle with a cup for example

Don't look at the charts they are evil not very useful!

My daughter (now 4) was very chunky at that age but when she starts running everywhere and has a few growth spurts she will get leaner. It sounds like she has a good diet, personally I wouldn't cut back on the milk.

You can't just look at centile charts on their own, parents own height and size has to be taken into account too. It sounds like she is going to be tall like her mummy.

I agree with needmorecoffee, if she was three I would be more worried but I don't know many skinny one year olds!

DD1 was exactly the same at that age - very chubby, and would eat anything and everything, and drink lots of milk - she was quite a bit heavier than she was tall on the centile charts. She was certainly chubbier than lots of her peers and I did worry a bit, but over the years she has got much fussier :-( and eats less, now aged 4.5 she is really quite slim and is losing her lovely round belly. As so many have said already, if she is having a healthy diet, I wouldn't worry at all, now is obviously a time when she needs to take and in and store some calories - these will all be used up at a later date. Take joy in blowing raspberries on all her chubby bits - so much more fun than blowing raspberries on a skinny one!

I am not sure about switching to semi skimmed so young. There are fat soluble vits in whole milk that young children need. I would weed out any fried stuff and sweeties/puddings. Give more yoghurts (plain with fruit puree rather than the sugar loaded wee pots maybe?) as desserts.
Her height weight ratio sounds perfect so I am not sure you need to worry. I think at 1 year old she should be a bit chubby. Oh delicious baby fat. Maybe try another brand of clothes - they do seem to cut them differntly

semi-skimmed isnt recommended before age 2 as it has less fat and calories. From age 1 the equivalent of 300/350mls of milk is recommended - this doesnt have to all be in drink form as milk in cereal and other dairy products count too.

if she drinks milk well from a cup then maybe transfer the am and pm feeds into a cup as that should naturally cut down her intake.