Worried About My Baby Not Gaining Weight

Hi S.!

I am not sure if my experience will be helpful or not, but here goes. I am a mother of 2 myself. My eldest daughter is 4 1/2 years old. She was born 6 lb 8 oz. She grew slowly as well. The doctors were ALWAYS telling me that she is WAY underweight. As she grew older, she grew much taller. She was over 3 feet tall on her 2nd birthday! At WIC she has always been at 'risk' as they like to label them because she does not really gain weight. My daughter is now 4 1/2 and she stands 46" tall and weighs 35 lbs. She gained a whole pound over the last several months. My child is healthy! She is just VERY tall and VERY VERY skinny! My little one is following her footsteps to a degree. I would say that if your child is healthy, just keep doing what you are doing. Your son will grow on his own. Maybe he is like my daughter and will just be REALLY skinny. There is no telling until they are growing up, but I wouldn't put my child through a bunch of tests if he is healthy, just because he doesn't fit the 'standard' of weight. He is unique, as my daughter was and is, and he will grow in his own time.

Good luck!

well i have had 2 kids and watched my 2 step kids grow over the last 6 almost 7 years and they all grow and gain and diff times my youngest is almost 6 and she weighed 7lbs 1 oz when she was born and now as i said almost 6 she only weighs 31 pounds every1 says she should weigh more but if he seems healthy to you then dont worry bout it it could be he is going to take after someone in the family being very slim. as long as he eats and healthy let him be happy cause of course drs. say things if they r below weight or slightly above so u can win just do what you think is best

My sister went through something similar with her two. No matter what my sister did, they never gained much all that much. They are healthy and happy. I suggest that you just feed your little one as you have been. Make sure he gets quality food over quantity. Another thing to consider, are you of asian desent? My sister is, which is one reason her children where smaller then "adverage". Hope this helps.

I think as long as your baby is reaching his milestones alright, then he will most likely be absolutely fine. Are you or baby's dad small or were you small when you were young? It might just be in his genes. As long as he is consistently gaining weight each time he goes in, he will be fine. Has he lost any weight or stayed at the same weight for more than two weigh ins? If so, I would probably do some more testing to be on the safe side. If he is consistently gaining at least some weight every time you take him in, I would just keep an eye on it. Make sure he fills up on breastmilk or formula first before you give him any solids. Breastmilk or formula has more calories and nutrients than any solid he could eat. Good luck.

J.

This could be normal, My son is 4 years old and only weighs about 35 pounds when he was that age he did the same thing. he weighed 12 pounds until he was 6mons. and at a year he wighed maybe 19 pounds. We took him to a pediactric gastroligest and he sad that it was becouse me and my husband are so tiny. So dont get to worried. Ask you peditricion about it tell them that you are following the gide lines and voice your concerns and see what they say.

I have three children and they all were very different growing. My first was 5 lbs at birth and 30 by a year. My second also grew quite fast and was and still is off the charts for his age. My last one was the biggest born but the smallest overall - all kids grow at different paces and ways. If you think he is healthy and hitting his milestones than all is good. charts don't prove much of anything if he is hitting his milestones. good luck

While I agree that your little one is probably healthy you may ask about haveing his thyriod tested. Thyriod problems are a common cause of wieght problems. It just a simple blood test and may help put your mind at ease. My oldest had a thyriod problem and was diagnosed with failure to thrive. I have since learned that dr. have a tendency to diagnose a child as failure to thrive when they don't know what else is wrong.

S. w,
I am dealing with the same thing b/c i have a set of twins that are not at a good wieght for there hieght and length. when i took them to wic for there check up there they told me that one twin that was put on pedisure was at 5% and the other was at 6% and i am scared to but they eat all the time and eat very healthy but the woman told me just keep feeding them healthy and i will be fine. She also said you can feed the twins pedisure also so this could be a help but i thought my son was gaining wieght till i went to that wic apointment b/c the Dr. put him on pedisure at 14 months old and he now is 20 months and he was put on it for 3 months. If anything ask where in stand with other children his age, hight and length b/c my doctor only is scared when they are 5% or below. I hope this helps
C.

My Daughter,whom is now six, has always been small. Iwas too. My boys where not and they all eat the same. A doctor one told my mom that as long as I was eating it was fine. As long as your child is healthy I won't say there is much need to worry....dr. now a days try to scare people with stuff like that but when I told the dr. about me with my dr at here age the dr never mentioned to me about my daughter having a underweight problem again. Some kids are just skinnyer than others no two kids are alike, the chart is an average, and dr look at it as if it was the Gods wrd not an average, which it is....most kids weight 4o bls around 4, my daught just finally hit 40 bls. I hope this helps to ease your worries.
D. E.

Are your husband and you smaller people? anyone in your family or his family very small built? My daughter weighed 16 pounds when she turned 1 year old... Perfectly healthy she was just small. I had all the same concerns as you and I had all the test run including thyroid and diabetes...nothing was wrong she was just little... Well she is 10 years old now and she is 4 foot 3 inches tall and weights only 61 pounds. She is in the 5th grade and way smaller than most everyone in her class but she is a healthy a kid as any.

If you still have serious concerns and you feel your doctor isn't meeting your expectations... Get a second opinion. You are a mom and you should never feel you are wrong just for making sure your children are ok.

My guess is that he is just like my little girl because she was healthy and satisfied easily she was just little....

I hope this helps Good luck with everything Hugs M.

My daughter just turned 2 on November 16, 2006 and she is still wearing 18 month clothes. The 24 month or 2T pants just fall off of her. She eats several small meals a day and drinks juice and her pediatrician suggested also giving her chocolate milk to try to add some weight onto her. Her pediatrician is going to see how she is growing at her appointment tomorrow but has said that some kids are just small. My husband's family is very small and short and my 13 year old son was the same way. Just a skinny little thing. He is 13 and I still have to buy him size 16 SLIM jeans.

I don't know if this might help you but here I go. You might want you doctor to check for Poloic steniosis of worms these are just little things that can add up to big things. I may have not spelled poloric steniosis correct but look it up and you will understand it more...

My son is 1 year old now. When he was born he weighed 7lbs and 13oz. Now he weighs 16lbs and 13oz. Dr. Bulger said he was proportinately perfect, not to worry. He was only gaining a pound a month for the first few months! He just wasn't hungry. He would eat often and in small portions. He was very active then and is now. Dr. Bulger believes he may be hyperactive. He was standing and walking along the furniture at 3 months old. Every time I went to the doctor for a check up, we got gold stars. But when our insurance company forced us to seek a new doctor, she ranted and raved at me about how under weight he was. He wasn't even on her charts! She told me I had to force feed him, make him gain more weight. That if he didn't put 2lbs on in a months time, she would test him for Failure to Thrive. I left her office in tears. Thomas got a sore throat, so we saw Dr. Samala again, and she prescribed some antibiotics. He turned out to be allergic to them. But the doctor at the emergency room said he was fine, weight wise (I had to ask her opinion). She said he was proportinately perfect, smart, satisfied, and very active. Thomas is a breast fed baby. I understand that the weight/height charts are based on formula fed babies. Formula fed babies tend to be bigger, but don't get the imunities found in breast milk. My neighbors son is 6 weeks younger then Tom, formula fed and weighs 25lbs. He just started to crawl. I realize it is not fair to compare babies, but that's what we all do to make sure our child is normal. Tom has a double chin, pudgy thighs, a belly and muscle tone in his limbs. He has only had colds during the appropriate seasons and a sore throat. My neighbors son is always sick. We have yet to go play with him because he is usually sick with bronchitis, fevers, and colds. My son maybe smaller, but he is very healthy. I just make sure he has healthy snacks available to him all day and water or milk. He loves the Gerber veggie puffs and Cheerios.