Is my child too small?

[RichTeaCheddars]

Is my child too small?
She's 3 years old. She wears mostly age 1 year old clothes. Sometimes age 1.5 year but they are too baggy although the length is right.
She's 11.6 kg / 26 lb
I've known she's small and did query it when she was younger and GP/HV said was fine. But it seems such a large disparity now she's older. She was born at term 6lb 9oz.

Can't decide if I'm worrying over nothing or should get it checked out formally.

has she followed her centile line?

Have you plotted her height and weight in your red book - or here https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Girls_2-18_years_growth_chart.pdf

I need to double check my records but I believe she was born on 20(something)% and dropped to 7% by 6 months but the HV wasn't concerned at this point. DD was putting on a show in the weighing bowl for them 😂.
I think she's more on 3% now.

Is she just 3 or closer to 4? Either way, she’s sat somewhere between 0.4th-9th centile on the WHO growth chart. The chart states children on or below the 0.4th centile should be assessed at some point to exclude problems (which isn’t particularly helpful)
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Girls_0-4_years_growth_chart.pdf

Thanks for that link. She's on 3rd percentile on that chart.
She's only just 3 years old.
She's strong and doesn't look skinny or anything. She seems perfectly formed, meeting targets they would expect at preschool - she's just mini.
I suppose someone needs to be the smallest! I just have a wobble every now and then!

Are you or her dad tall or not? If not then she’s probably just naturally short. It’s good to keep an eye on it though.

My son is on the 9th percentile and it does worry me at times, so I do understand how you feel.

He's 7 now and no one has ever shown any concern. The HV just said that as I'm quite small and my husband is very slim, our son wasn't ever going to be massive.

To be honest, the only time it's ever caused an issue is when he's not been tall enough for the thrill rides at a theme park 🤣

I'm 5 ft 2 and I forgot how tall her dad is but he is a average for a man. We're both of slim bone structure however neither of us were this small as a young child.

Yes, I'll keep an eye on it. Plus (trivial I know) but I'm measuring her for when we can go to Legoland! She needs to be at least 90cm 😂😂

How tall are you, her father, and other family members?

My elder daughter has always had a low (childs) bmi... tall but extremely skinny. But there's others in the family with the same body type so there's no worry. They were a bit concerned about her short her sister was in comparison (as one was 9th centile and the other 91st centile for height!) But she shot up when she was 4.

I was told by DD’s pediatric consultant that according to new research height has more to do with maternal genes than paternal ones. So if you’re small they won’t investigate further while she’s following centiles.

That's good to know. Yes, I'm definitely small!

I occasionally have the same worries about my DD who is 8 but can happily fit in 6yo clothes. She was born around the 50th centile but dropped quickly and has always been tiny since being a toddler. I think she is <1 centile now. No health concerns when she was young only issue a few months of "hurty heart" when she was about 4. She had various heart scans but they concluded it was acid reflux. Every now and then I wobble and wonder whether I should get her checked but I never do because I don't know what I'd say. She appears entirely healthy, whip smart, happy. There's nothing wrong with her. She's just mini!