Tiny Toddler

Well, it sounds like you already know why your daughter is short... you and your husband are short. The chart goes from 0 to 100 because someone is at 1 and someone is at 50 and someone is at 99. There is no point in having a chart if we assume everyone below 10% has something wrong with them.

The purpose of the chart is to look for a trend in growth. If your daughter was at the 90th percentile until six months ago and lost 5 pounds and stopped growing I would be concerned. If she was at the 10th and slowed a little or has always been around 5 I wouldn't be concerned.

I would look for a new doctor. To be blunt, your doctor apparently doesn't know how to use the charts and isn't able to use other factors like heredity and nutrition to figure out that your child is just a small person.

Now if there is some other issue here like chronic diarrhea or anemia then there may be a problem that warrants further investigation.

BTW, I have two "small" children- my daughter is 3 and she weighs 23 pounds. So this is kind of a touchy subject for me. Good luck.

My Aunt is very tiny- I don't know if she is even 5'0". Her son was also very short, at 8 years old he was the size of a 5 yo. They didn't check him out earlier because she was tiny too. Well, when they did they discovered there was something more to the situation and that requires my Uncle to give a hormone shot everyday. I would highly recommend having it looked at, I can't imagine not wanting to get ahead of problem. Perhaps what you will find out is that there is nothing wrong.

I have never taken my son, nor have we ever been advised to take our son, to an endocrinologist. Granted, I am 5'4" and my husband is average height for a man, but our son was under the 10th percentile in both height and weight until just recently, when a growth spurt put him in higher rankings. We are blessed with a pediatrician who agrees with our belief that as long as the child is otherwise healthy, there is no reason for concern about height and weight. People come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, etc. Some are little, some are big. What we have to keep in perspective is that these percentages are based on tendencies, but are not a guide that we have to follow or be concerned with. And frankly, with all the obesity in this country, I'm glad my son is little, given the organic and natural diet we try to keep him on.

Do what you feel, but I'd pass on the endocrinologist and let your daughter be a little girl.

Here's my theory...someone has to be in the bottom 5% as well as the top 5% or there wouldn't be a scale! That said though, if your doctor shows concern, you may want to check it out anyway. Better to find out now if there is something causing it than later when it might not be treatable. It can't hurt to talk to an endocrinologist.

Of course, being short isn't all that bad...I'm only 4'10"! :)

I have a friend who has a son who is small for his age. He also was in the 5th precentile for height but his dr said as long as he was similar in weight percentile he is just built small. If the weight was in the 75th percentile then there is need to be concerned that there was too much weight on such a small frame. I would talk to your doctor about this before you change but I would not hesitate to get a second opinion if you feel it is needed. Maybe keep track of what she eats for a week. Keep track of every snack, drink, meal, etc... If she is eating a balanced diet and is otherwise healthy I would not worry. Good Luck!

my son was always under the precent also.. he had bowed legs because he started walking at 7 1/2 months!!.. and my other 2 were always over the precent.. so they labled him as a small child.. he was so short and little until he was almost 2 1/2 and he just shot up!!.. they still say hes small for his age.. because hes going to be 4 may 1st.. and weighs 34lbs.. and wears 3 & 4T.. but i think hes perfect.. as long as hes healthy!!

Just wanted to respond as I just returned from the doctor. My 5yr old twins just had there school physicals. One is in the 5th percentile for weight and the 13th percentile for height. The other is in the 9th percentile for both.

My 9 yr old daughter is also in the lower percentile range for height and weight. They are all healthy and eat well.