I have a healthy little girl who is breastfeeding but has no trouble eating other foods. She’s been at the 5th percentile is weight since 3 weeks after birth and try as we might we just can’t pack on poundage.
She HATES avocado which is what the doc recommends for weight gain.
Anything else we should try?
My recommendation: give up. My daughter has been in the 5th percentile range since birth and is an intelligent, thriving five year old.
We banged our heads over this for a time. Had her checked out for CF and other disorders. Spent beacoup bucks on some magic high calorie powder from the pharmacy. Made her milk shakes and otherwise tried to sneak as many calories as possible into her, but to no avail. Once her internal calorie meter reached “full” that was it.
If your daughter has consistently been this way and is happy to eat but just not a lot, then I suggest concentrating on making sure what she eats is healthy and not worry about her weight. I know that isn’t really answering your question, but that’s my two cents.
If she’s healthy and eating normally why would she need to focus on weight gain? I could see if she was losing weight but she’s been on a consistent trajectory for the last 8 months. I would track what she’s eating and make sure everything she eats is healthy but not worry too much about weight gain. I would however feel free to use full fat version of everything she’s eating. Yogurt, butter on vegetables, cheese etc. I wouldn’t add extra sugar however.
Are you fattening her up to eat her? :dubious:
I suggest you take her to see a different doctor. If two doctors are concerned about her weight, then you worry about it. Otherwise, don’t make weight or eating an issue. Kids eat to grow; they don’t grow to eat.
Did your doctor express concerns? If not, I wouldn’t be too worried, though it might make you feel better if you get a second opinion.
And for what it’s worth, it’s almost impossible to force a baby to eat if they really don’t want to. And even if you could, it’s not wise unless they’re failing to thrive. You don’t want to set the scene for a battle. It’ll make mealtimes hell if you do.
As far as foods that could pack on poundage…you could try some full-fat dairy now probably - not milk, but full-fat cottage cheese, yogurt, mozarella cheese, etc. My daughter has loved string cheese since she began eating solids - it’s a really handy, healthy snack to have around. You could also try meats (ground chicken, ground beef, etc.) if you’re not vegetarian. Those options aren’t necessarily guaranteed to pack on the weight, but they could help. If you are vegetarian, maybe some beans?
I also agree that you shouldn’t worry about it overmuch. Were you or your husband tiny as babies or kids? Are you thin now? Does she eat a variety of foods. Does she look healthy?
My pediatricians have always said that if they are gaining weight on a straight trajectory, that is normal for that child. If there’s a sudden drop-off, then you’d be right to be concerned.
My 6-year-old hasn’t gained a pound in two years, yet he’s grown probably four inches taller. Well, maybe that’s exaggerating — but the pants he wore when he was 4 still fit. They’re just hitting him an inch above the ankles. (Yet he weighed nearly 10 pounds at birth.)
Moving thread from MPSIMS to IMHO.
The doctor had my daughter drink an Ensure shake a day from the time she was about one I guess. It was pretty young because I recall putting them in a bottle. The goal was to keep her on the chart until she finally had reached “normal” weight consistently at about five. She’s 12 now, perfectly healthy even though very small and thin. You may want to ask her physician about them. As parents I know we are a slave to that growth chart and it really freaked me out when my daughter wasn’t on it. My sibling and I use the same pediatrician and she is constantly on my sibling about my niece being OVERweight. We laugh that our doc is never happy.
For my youngest he never made above the bottom of the growth chart - as in the line at the bottom - for weight until around age 10 or 12.
As Ellen Cherry said the pediatrician wasn’t concerned as long as he was demonstrating consistent growth, which he was.
Just like everyone else, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If she’s on track developmentally and eats well, then she’s probably okay.
My baby is perfectly average length but so skinny that his length:weight ratio hasn’t even made it onto the chart yet. I’m not sweating it though, and neither is our doctor, because I know he eats like a pig and is developmentally totally fine; he’s just a little guy (with a gigantic head; he’s in the 95th percentile there…).
I also wouldn’t worry about it if she’s developing well and continuing a past trend. That said, a friend whose baby was also healthy-but-tiny at around that age was advised by her pediatrician to mix a bit of olive oil in with the baby’s food. He loved vegetables, and as the doctor said, “If I ate carrots all day, I wouldn’t gain weight either.”
Relax and read some Ellyn Satter. If she is healthy and eating, don’t mess with it. Somebody has to be the small kid.
Were you (or her father) a small baby?
My granddaughter turned two years old on January 29th of this year. She weighs 21 pounds. She’s also very tall for her age. She’s very skinny and eats only enough to live–exactly like her father who is 6" 3" and weighs about 170 pounds at his heaviest. I wouldn’t be concerned unless the kid seems unhealthy in other ways. Some people are just going to be smaller, and for the most part, that’s probably going to be an advantage as they get older, healthwise.
This. My older daughter was born at 75% percentile weight. And promptly proceeded to plummet down the percentile chart for the next 3-4 months. We had a failure to thrive diagnosis with twice weekly weigh ins and everything (way to scare a first time mama!). Since then she’s consistently been 20-25th weight percentile (her height has always been ~50th percentile) and our ped doesn’t care now. He’s said that the goal for any child is to stay on one trajectory; he get’s concerned with trajectory changes in either direction. After all, these charts show averages and some child has to be on the smaller side and some on the larger side.
My six year old is the same way; she’s gained about 5 lbs in 2 years and is still steady on her percentile curve. Her 2 year old sister has a larger waist size than the six year old. And her 4 year old pants still fit her in the waist; summer shorts tend to be a problem!
Btw, it’s totally normal for your child to have a different height percentile than their weight percentile so long as they remain roughly on the same one.
Yes, is she growing and is the doctor concerned? I worried my parents and pediatrician by mysteriously not growing at all (no gains in either height or weight) between the ages of two and four but I was too healthy otherwise to be diagnosed with failure to thrive, and started growing again at age four for no more reason than I stopped; it might be the reason I’m shorter than both parents, but otherwise there were no lasting ill effects. So…if you can be healthy and not grow at all, you can probably be healthy if both small and growing.