Underweight - Seagoville,TX

My daughter weighed like 12 pounds at a year old. However, she was walking at 7 months and perfectly healthy. She ate everything. Super intelligent. Other than a severe allergy to disposable diapers, she had no health problems.
Her doctors tested her for anemia and everything else. She was just little.
She's going to be 24 next month and she's barely 5 feet tall and super tiny.
She is built exactly like my mother. I'm tall, dad's tall, my 15 year old son towers over her. She's just a little pixie. She's absolutely beautiful and an absolute dynamo. She's little and there's not a darn thing I could have done to change it.
Maybe your daughter really will just be little. It's not such a bad thing if she's perfectly healthy.

Best wishes.

2 moms found this helpful

I have 5 children and my oldest was in the 10 percentile until he hit puberty. His doctor was okay with it because he was healthy and normal but my mother in law thought he was going to wither. =) My girls were in the 25 percentile and my 4th son was in the 98 percentile. I don't know about my baby because they don't do percentile and my doctor now. But my oldest was a bitty thing forever. He was a late bloomer too but once he hit puberty, he grew several inches and gained 40 pounds. Now he's totally in the "normal" catagory. I wouldn't worry too much, especially if she's healthy and happy and your doctor gives her a clean bill of health. Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

My daughter is in the 20 percentile on weight and the 65 percentile on height. This puts her 15 percent taller than the average in height and 30 percent lower than the average in weight. Our pediatrician always says, if I didn't know better I would say she is underweight, but she has the proper amount of fat on the back of her arm and she looks healthy. He said you cannot always go by the growth chart to decide if a child in overweight or underweight. He said the chart does not account for a small boned child or a large boned child. It is based only on the average boned child and the height and weight that is correct for them. For a small boned child, it can make them look underweight by the charts when they are really not. For a large boned child, it can make them look overweight by the charts when they are really not. The best way to tell if they are truly underweight or overweight is by the amount of fat on their arms. I believe he said that you should be able to easily pinch up 10 millimeters. He has a special tool he uses to measure. He measures my daughters arm every time we see him. He has never did this with my boys, so I am assuming he only does it because her charts make her appear underweight.

1 mom found this helpful

Both my girls were 22ish pounds at 3. One is now 12 and 5'4" and 100 pounds after a huge meal and one is 15, 5"3" and 116 pounds.
I'm sure your little one is just fine.

If you are worried you could seek another opinion but some people are just small. Take a look at your family how many people are thin.

If you trust your doctor, let your worries go. If you're unsure, get a second opinion. Is her doctor a pediatrician? They see lots of children and should have a good sense of the range within which children are fit and still be healthy.

If you live near a teaching hospital, you could make an appointment with a pediatric growth specialist and ask their advice.

My baby is 22 mos and only about 25-28 lbs.
His dad is tall and lean.
Baby eats pretty well so as long as your daughter is eating well and often enough it should be fine.
Ped would tell you if concerned.
Look at parents: lean? overweight? etc.

Pedi is pretty good about all that. Both of my children were small. My daughter from the time she was 6 months to 3 years old was not on the growth chart. She is now 6 years old and is in the 10% on the growth chart. Her pedi said as long as she is gaining some weight and reaching all of her milestones then she is fine. The pedi also takes into consideration the parents size and other siblings. My son at the same age was always in the 5th-10%, I think he still is.

I'm sure she's just fine. If she isn't having any digestive issues, has hit all or most of the developmental milestones and her pedi says everything is ok, then just enjoy your little girl. Charts and percentiles really just give an "average" guideline and shouldn't be taken as the rule. Be glad that you have a pedi that doesn't try to get her to gain weight by suggesting crazy things like feeding her ice cream for breakfast--No, really, I've had a patient tell me that their pedi told them this!!

I wouldn't stress too much. If you are feeding her healthy stuff and she is eating, she's proably fine. both my boys are TINY bits compared to all their friends. My husbands family is small..they are just going to be small. My youngest is 21 months, JUST broke 22 lbs and can still wear 9mo pants!! If your doc isn't concerned, I wouldn't be either.

All of my children were at the way small end of the growth curve. As long as she is otherwise healthy and is growing, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

It is probably nothing to worry about, but since you're asking for ideas, I thought I'd throw this one out...if you notice any digestive issues (excessive diarrhea, vomiting, not eating regularly), you might have that checked out.

My daughter never had a height/weight issue, but has had digestive issues from the time she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis (age 2) . At age five, she was finally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Most of the kids I have seen who have ulcerative colitis or Crohn's are very underweight.

It's pretty uncommon to have a GI diagnosis at 18 months, but I heard a pediatric gastroenterologist speak about infants in his practice.

If you are concerned about it, definitely get a second opinion. It took four years of hearing "your daughter's digestive issues are nothing to worry about" and then "your daughter MUST be lactose intolerant" (she has tested negative to lactose intolerance) to finally get her ulcerative colitis diagnosis. When she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, I never felt like that was all to the diagnosis. I did a ton of research, asked lots of questions, networked like crazy with other parents. Then my daughter developed uveitis (inflammation of the eye) and I dug further down that path with my research.

I finally attended a conference where I got the link confirmed among the arthritis, uveitis and gastrointestinal issues. Even with the medical terms, my daughter's many medical specialists told me there was nothing else to her long list of health issues! I stuck with my motherly instinct that said something wasn't right and finally got the right tests done to show inflammation of her intestinal tract. A colonoscopy confirmed the diagnosis.

So.... if you feel like there is more to your daughter's low weight than "she's just going to be small", I highly recommend getting a second (third, fourth, etc.) opinion until you feel comfortable there is nothing to worry about. I wish I had pushed my daughter's many doctors (6 of them!) to look at her intestinal issues more closely, but I thought that all these doctors have a lot of combined medical experience and I have no medical background so they must know. If it had been just one doctor, I probably would have pushed harder, but six of them all said the same thing.

Sorry for the long, rambling response, but I'm really passionate about urging moms to listen to the concerns they have about their child/ren and keep asking questions until you get answers that make those concerns go away.

Good luck!

My daughter to runs low and at one point under the carts for weight but in other measurements is average height, has a large head and super smart. My Pedi had us at first when she feel off the charts (around 15-18months) start her on Pediasure twice a day but she did not like it and it is expensive to have to just pour it out. So now she has Carnations Instant breakfast (because it has added vitamins & nutrition unlike just favored powder) twice a day instead of just milk after she has breakfest and dinner. This way she is getting additional calories and nutrition from the carnations but it does not filll her up before she has her meal. She is still smaller weighing 24lbs at 26 months but is a happy and energetic little girl and with no digestive problems the doc thinks she is just going to be pettie.

If you are worried though get a second opinion but I am sure if you see no other signs of problems she sounds like she has been moving and on the go for a while and may just be who she is. :)