My 'skinny' baby

[Lotster5]

My nearly 11 month old DS has always been light side (25th percentile according to my red book) but he's now in the 2% range, i.e. 98% of all babies at his age will be heavier than him.

It's true, he doesn't have much spare flab on his torso, but he has nice squidgy arms and legs, a little belly and a little double chin.

Should I feed him up a bit or just let him be what he is? How do I understand what quantities of food I should be feeding him - just in case I'm under feeding him?

He's healthy, content, is happily cruising around and causing general mischief, so I am wondering if I'm just letting 'official statistics' get to me.

Any views appreciated!

Have a look on this thread here

sorry im just running out will catch up later

Thanks soremummy. I realised I should add a bit more info:

1. No longer breastfeeding but, since an illness about 5 weeks ago, he has dropped his milk intake from around 18/20oz to anywhere between 10-15oz a day. I guess this might be his natural drop approaching 1st birthday? 3 bottles p/d 9.00am, 3.00pm and 7.00pm.

1. Loves his food and am wondering I should just give him more? Part time at nursery and they give him what feels to me like TONNES of food - mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack (e.g. fruit/yog) and lunch time consists of, e.g. roast chicken + pots, followed by apple crumble.

1. I wouldn't normally give him any snacks, just 3 meals a day. He has a pud, but this is usually fruit or yog (or both).

How tall is he on the height charts in the red book? Maybe he is small there also, therefore totally in proportion.

He has never been measured for height other than at birth (51cm) so I have no idea. Doesn't seem particularly short compared with other babies as far as I can remember.

Any tips on measuring - is it crown to heel with the measuring tape following the contours of his body?

An 11m child would normally need snacks to keep them going between those three meals a day. If he will eat a healthy snack (or two!) and still eat his meals well, then I would go by his own appetite and offer snacks.

To measure you just lie the tape flat, not following body contours.

Having said that, my 22m DS eats his meals very well and has tons of snacks, all as calorific and healthy as I can manage, but he is still skinnier than most kids his age (I have stopped getting him weighed though). If you and/or DH were skinny as children then that often follows in your children. My DH and I were both waifs and are still slim now so it stands to reason that our DS will follow that way too.

Sadly DH and I are not waifs!! We're on the padded side of slim I would say. DH was small as a boy and is now 5'8".

Not sure about me but think I was normal-ish.

That linked thread was really interesting.

my experience with both my dd's have been very similar.

dd1 was 7lb 11 at birth, bottlefed from birth and was very slow to gain weight, in fact she stayed on the 9th centile from about a month old as she failed to gain weight in the first month or so.

she is nearly 6, skinny little thing yet eats like a horse.

dd2 was born9lb 8 0z dropped 2 centiles and is now following 25 centile. Bottlefed from birth too, had reflux problems and poor appetite due to some coughs and colds etc.

She actually lost weight at one point but now she is 14 months and weighs 19lb 12 oz and is very slowly gaining weight and has got a lovely appetite.

I don't give her snacks between meals apart from the odd piece of apple or biscuit and yesterday she ate as big a meal as my 5 year old at tea time which was quite a lot!

Lotser I think you are doing fine, both my dd's walked early and extremely active.

My ds never walked until he was 18 months and he was huge compared to the dd in comparison.

dd2 has a little pot belly too but is very 'ribby'

she pushes her food away when she has had enough.

Think theres too much emphasis on these weight charts