HV couldn't answer this, so looking for advice here instead!

[WriggleJiggle]

dd is quite small, so today I made the effort to get both children out of the house, walk to the clinic, wait for ages for my turn .... blah blah blah.

Anyway, after all that effort I wanted to know when I should start getting concerned about it? Do I wait till she falls off the charts? Do I wait til she starts school and see if she's caught up by then? Should I be concerned at all or just ignore it?

Is she healthy? Are you and/or DP small?
I'm a littly and get a bit miffed at the inference that small = problematic. What do you feel about it, hand on heart? Are you worried about her or do you just think that's the way she's meant to be?

My DS is quite small too. My HV was a bit more helpful than yours by the sound of it!! She told me to get him weighed and measured every 3 months over the next year.

What she is looking for is DS climbing his percentile, whichever one that might be. DS is on the second percentile and going along it nicely so he is growing IYSWIM.

She would get concerned if he was not progressing along the percentile. Not sure if that helps but it made sense to me. DS is 2 btw.

My DD was just under 50% at birth and has fallen to 2% for weight and height and is now 10. She has always been happy and healthy and she does grow just petit.

If your DD is eating nicely, developing well and weight loss has not been dramatic in a short time (apart from that bit after they are born) then she should be OK.

Also FWIW my mum reassured me slightly when she told me that both my 2 DBs were always the smallest in their classes at school. Both of them are now 6ft plus and would never be regarded at short, petite etc!!!

dd is 2yrs old. 2nd centile for height and 25th for weight. Very bouncy, healthy toddler. I'm not really worried (but worried enough to measure her and plot the graph).

My family are average/small. Dh's are average/tall. I don't think I'm too concerned, its more a case of when should I get concerned. HV helpfully compared her to dd2 who is HUGE, so that comment backfired a bit. She also suggested I could see the GP and get refered to a specialist.

I think he'll just think she's a pfb.

Do you get her weighed and measured regularly? Is she climbing the percentile or falling of?

If you plot her height and weight on the graph, does it steadily rise? In proportion to the middle centile?

If so, then you shouldn't worry, she is just small but is growing normally and healthily.

It is if the line on your graph starts to even out or dip that you should worry.

If she's following along a centile, whichever it is, that is fine. If she's crossing centile lines, that's a cause for concern and warrants referral.

I would be more interested in her general health and height of mum (and to some degree dad).

It sounds to me as if she is just 'constitutionally small' at the moment. However, she may catch up in future.

I wouldn't be too concerned for now. You HV can refer on if they think there's a problem.

I guess there lies the problem. She has dropped one line since I last measured her at 18 months. However, being a slack parent the only times she was measured before that was during the first 2 months when she was at the 50th.

Crossing one line is OK.

See how things go and don't beat yourself up about it.

It can take children about a year to find their centile, which sounds exactly like what she is doing.