Can I rant for a second?

grinnysgirl

I will warn you- this post comes from the perspective of a mommy who has had to deal with/worry about her children's low weight issues from in utero on so its sort of a hot point with me. After dealing with IUGR with Ella, teetering on the line of failure to thrive in her first weeks of life, threats of hospitalization/tube feeding, etc. and then an IUGR scare/SGA diagnosis with Brody, this is a sensitive issue for me and one that I have thrown myself into researching and learning more about.

In the past month two of my good friends have become worried about their LOs' weight and come to me for advice. Friend #1 has a baby who was born average size (low 7s) but got big FAST via mommy's milk Her DD was in the high 90% until about 4 months and then slowly started dropping on the charts as she thinned out. Both parents have petite frames so it was no surprise that this little girl at now two years old has a petite frame as well. She has actually fallen off the growth chart for weight and is in the single digits for height. Her pedi diagnosed her as failure to thrive and suggested "if you can afford it, one fast food meal a day will help fatten her up." UGH. This type of advice just KILLS me. Eating fast food once a day is a terrible idea for anyone, let alone a developing child! And I get that without all the facts, looking at a child whose weight is not on the charts could be cause for alarm. But one thing I have learned is that it is extremely important to take in the stature of the parents and it is also important to look at the little known weight-for-stature growth charts that plot the child's weight according to their length/height. There are also BMI calculators that start at two years old which are a good indicator as to whether the child is at a healthy weight. If we look at those charts, her daughter is actually "healthier" on the weight scale than Ella is, yet she is being diagnosed as FTT and told to eat a lot of fast food. That just rubs me the wrong way. The little girl is completely healthy and active- just has a tiny frame!

Friend number 2 has a son who was also big from the start- almost 9 lbs at birth, 90%+ for his first few months of life. A BIG kid. Now at 9 months he weighs 22 pounds but only gained a little over a pound between 6-9 months. Mom is extremely concerned about the lack of weight gain and his drop in percentiles from 70 to 40. She is going back in for weight checks and is extremely worried. Again, pedi told her that this is cause for concern and something to definitely keep their eye on. I totally understand that drops in growth curves are something to watch but at the same time I feel that it is only reasonable to expect kiddos to sometimes just hit their peak and then level out. Her son is incredibly healthy and at 22 pounds is hardly the picture of too skinny. He only grew about an inch in the past few months as well so it would be reasonable to assume that he wouldn't gain a lot of weight.

Ugh. I just hate that parents get concerned about weight stuff like this when their kiddos are doing just fine! I know those growth charts can seem scary but coming from a mommy of a little one who just reached double digits on the chart for the first time EVER and going through all the weight struggles we did I think I just have a different perspective and wish everyone would just do a little research before they freak out. Vent over

shea77

vent anytime!

for a while i was freaking out about O's weight and his picky eating habits and one of the pedi's (not Stoll) at the dr suggested fast food too.  i was disgusted.  i told him that i couldn't understand why any doctor would suggest such a thing.  there are many good "fattening" foods that are healthy (avocados come to mind) so why push parents that are scared to start poor eating habits.

anyway, i completely agree with you.  yes, oliver has had french fries and chicken nuggets and i feel guilty enough for that...but that is and never will be part of his normal diet!  

oliver is small and isn't gaining much weight and now is becoming quite picky but he is healthy, happy, thriving, and i'm okay with him being small.  obesity is such a problem in the US that i just don't understand why we can't look at the whole picture when it comes to the little ones instead of these growth charts/weight alone.  sorry, vent over.  

grinnysgirl

I completely agree Shea! There is definitely room for concern when little ones aren't gaining well especially of course if there are health problems associated with the lack of weight gain. And I definitely agree that there are many other healthy ways to add fat/calories to a child's diet such as avacados, certain nuts, etc. but fast food? No way! Now don't get me wrong- Ella loves her some McDonalds french fries and nuggets and I am the first to admit that she eats them on occasion (pretty rarely!) but I think it is just in poor taste to suggest this as a means for "fattening up" a child who happens to be on the low end of the growth chart! I also wonder if those kiddos who are on the high end of the weight chart or happen to make a larger than normal jump between appointments are given suggestions to diet or eat fat free foods as a means of slimming down? My guess would be probably not

sweetpea18

This is interesting to me because my pedi told me the opposite. Reese has always been long and skinny and at one point she was growing taller but not gaining any weight. She was being super picky and I was concerned. I made an off handed comment to the pedi about feeding her Mcdonalds chicken nuggets because she would eat those but not my made from scratch, free range chicken nuggets with organic bread crumbs. (so frustrating! Lol!). He said that Mcdonalds is a treat, once in a great while, and that he discourages parents from feeding it to their kids to fatten them up.