Help... Dd 16 months is burning off all her food!

[notremotelyintofootie]

dd has always been on the 'wee' side despite being 8lbs at birth... She was and still is bf but I supplement at home with growing up milkmaid at nursery (3 afternoons a week) she has full fat cows milk...

She has always been between 2-9th percentiles and has been weaned since 6 months on a mixture of jars and home cooked food, she has snacks and loves cake!

I last had her weighed in September (before she was walking) and today went and had her weighed... She has only put on 2lbs and is now 17lbs 3... Or the 0.4th percentile...

We try and give her fatty foods but she prefers to eat little and often and never stops moving, always running everywhere since November! She is so bright, cheeky and rarely ill - a cold lasts a few days and she never rests!

Any suggestions on how to 'fatten' her up? She is in 12-18 month clothes btw....

Should read milk and not milkmaid!

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It is very normal for weight gain to slow right down once they become mobile, and as long as she is otherwise developing normally, I wouldn't be too concerned.

I have a tiny boy. Born on 25th centile, now scraping along the 0.4th, been off the bottoms of the charts at times. He's now 5.5, very bright and active. He still wears some clothes that say 18-24 months on the label, although mostly 3-4 and occasional 4-5 which look like tents on him. I actually spoke to HV about him this morning, as I was there for DS2 one year check. I showed her his book, showing that he has put on nothing for a year, minimal the year before, but is getting taller (and skinnier).

She suggested adding double cream to things like cheese sauces when he has them. Keep him on full fat milk. Encourage him to eat as much as possible as regularly as possible (he doesn't have a big appetite). Other than that, to accept I have a son who is going to be as small as me, and hopefully never has weight problems as an adult.

Thanks plastic... My ds who is 11 is slight too (he's only 4-5 stone now!) and I know in my heart that dd is just like him but dh's mum keeps making comments about 'feeding' her up and my sisters little one who is just 4 months older weighs 12lbs more!

The hv's used to make comments, I am a bit overweight (size 14-16) but until I was 18-20 I was skinny too despite having size 8-9 feet!

If she's energetic and bright, then she's fine and you don't need to "fatten her up" at all. She sounds like she eats a good amount anyway. As was mentioned, weight gain slows right down after the age of one. Just keep doing what you're doing and don't worry.

Just did the sums - I was 21kg, so under 3.5 stone when I was 11! I am only 5'2" and 8 stone now, at 38. Now, having a skinny boy, I begin to understand why my mother used to worry so much (she is morbid obese ) . I do try not to worry too much, but I feel sad for him that he's going to be so tiny. He is just about 15kg now, and has been for a year or more.

My ds used to be the smallest in his primary school and I worried about him, he was bullied but since starting at a new high school he is no longer the smallest, there is a real ethnic mix and he loves it.... I think as adolescence hits he will sprout upwards but will always look like iggy pop! Lol

I wouldn't worry unless there is anything else you think might be affecting it.

DD1 was 7.10 at birth and at 2.7 years she has finally outgrown her first stage car seat weighing 13kg (28lb)! She was recently measured and is only 86cm tall and wears 12-18mo clothing. There is nothing wrong with her, nursery have just commented that she never sits still, always wriggling, tapping, dancing so burns up the vast quantities of food she eats.

Hi blueberry, that's encouraging to hear! I am desperate to put dd into her next car seat as it will be easier but she has nearly 2kg to go! Hopefully by when she is 3 too! Dd is a real fidgeter too and I am sure if she sat still longer she'd be twice her size...

Not worried about anything else causing it it's just frustrating being told to 'fatten her up' or comments made suggesting we starve her....

Not - DD3 went from 91st%ile (8lb 10oz) to down the 2nd as she had bronchiolitis repeatedly and wouldn't feed whilst she was ill (needed an NG tube at times). She stayed there for quite some time.

When she eventually started on solids at 29 weeks (had been on then for a week at 26 weeks when she got bronch. again so was taken off them until she recovered) we gave her 100mls of double cream a day (345kcals and 37g fat) in porridge for breakfast with fruit puree and greek yoghurt mixed with 25mls double cream and fruit puree for pudding along side ordinary table foods at lunch and dinner and as many bfs as she wanted.

If it could have extra fat added to it we did - mashed potato made with butter, cream, cheese & olive oil, risotto with cheese, cream & olive oil, pasta sauce made with cream, cheese & butter, roast potatoes, chips .....

The double cream diet didn't raise her weight too much just to the 25th%ile and the paediatrician was happy for us to do this just to get a bit more growth on her. Once she was steady on the 25th%ile we slowly dropped the double cream and all the extra fats (at about 12m/o) she's now 17m and eats what the rest of the family eat and is 21lbs and wears clothes in 6-9/12-18 (none of my other 2 DDs have been in 9-12m clothes for some reason so we don't have any they have all skipped straight through from 6-9 to 12-18m).

Argh - just read your 'fatten them up' comment and feel like a twat. Sorry I didn't mean you should do what we did - just what we did to get our vastly underweight (for her) DD3 to pack on some weight.

She's not going to ever be big though and I have had comments about 'look at the 6m/o cruising' when they are pointing to my 15m old DD3 so I know it can be disheartening when people assume you haven't fed them which is why they are smaller.