Need some advice for a friend....HV concerned about 13 mo weight gain.

[<Catherine>]

A friend of mine is worried about her DD as her HV has told her this morning that she has only put on 1lb in 3 months.

She's 13 months old and is currently weighing in at 19lbs something (I'm waiting confirmation of exact weight). What should she be weighing at this age?

My friend and her DH are really upset about it, she's suffering with PPD, and having a hard time so could do without this worry    Should she be worried? I'm trying to tell her not to be, but at the same time I don't really know what sort of weight her DD should be gaining, and what she should actually be weighing at this age.

She eats a wide variety of foods, and I think her milk intake is good.

Are there any foods in particular I can suggest to help with the weight gain?

[*Amy*]

My dd is 13 months and ridiculously tall as in 97th percentile. She is 24 pounds so not a huge difference! Is she eating solids and taking milk? Maybe she should increase her dairy intake as in lots of full fat yog/cheese.....of course providing she can eat dairy!

[Lemonthyme]

High fat I would think?  There's no need to worry about fat or saturates at this age so plenty of butter on vegetables, cheese (keep an eye on salt content) and olive oil.  Oily fish would be good as well.

[Shiv52]

Even if she weighs only 19lbs that's still well within range for being 13 months. It lies between the 25th and 50th centime which is absolutely fine.  Weight gain really really slows at this age so rather than focus on the fact she has only put on 1lb get them to concentrate on the fact the weight she is is totally fine.

We just saw the paed for R's MPI and she is 18lb4 I think and the paed said that was perfect. Hope you can reassure them xx

[Shdef]

At this age Scotty became REALLY mobile and turned from a rather chubby scrumptious baby boy on the 90th percentile for weight into a skinny, tall toddler who was below the 50th percentile for weight and out of the charts for height.

[Lolly]

Has she dropped down the centiles or has she always been in the bottom half of the charts? I think they do gain unevenly as they get older, so she may have only gained 1lb in the last 3 months, but she could gain more than that in the next 3 months.

That said, DS was only 2lbs heavier at 13 months which put him on the 25th centile - he had dropped down from the 75th and nobody was worried about it (apart from me of course!). His Paed did say that from about 1 year they do tend to settle where they genetically should be, and providing they do gain some weight they tend not to be too concerned. How big are her parents? Are they smallish people?

Laura

[<Catherine>]

Ok this is the third time I've written a reply and manage to press something and lose the whole lot! 

Thanks so much girls, she's read your replies and is feeling much better about it She's had a rough time and has taken this as a criticism to her parenting The HV said her DD was underweight and she wants to see her again in 2 weeks.

She's quite tall and slim, and Dad is slim too. I also forgot to mention in my original post (only a minor detail!    ) that she's been quite unwell for a little while too, so that wont have helped her to gain weight.

She's going to do what she can to up the calorie intake, but I think we've convinced her not to panic 

[Shiv52]

Flipping HVs have a lot to answer for worrying a poor mummy like that.

If she's been unwell then that needs to be taken into consideration too and if shes become more mobile too then that would make a lot of sense why there hasn't been huge weight gain. 

[<Catherine>]

and if shes become more mobile too then that would make a lot of sense why there hasn't been huge weight gain.

Yep, she said this to me herself too.

[~Emma~]

 I agree. DD has always been a chunker, a reall wee michelin baby. Since she's been walking she has slimmed down alot and I think as they enter toddlerhood things go in swings and roundabouts anyways.

 I cant stand the way HVs make Mummies feel. Grrrrrrr.

[Shiv52]

I know! And I've R's 1 year check to do and i am avoiding it as long as possible! 

[<Catherine>]

Ugh, they don't help do they?!

Mine was the opposite in some ways, in that I could have done with her interfering a bit! There are some quite troubled areas near where I live so I think she see's some horrible situations, so to her me and my stable family and clean house probably seemed completely trouble free - I even phoned her one morning in a complete state saying I was really struggling and could she come and visit....she said she'd pop in 9 days later!!!! Useless. I'm very sure I was suffering with PPD, and that DS had reflux, but I knew very little about PPD and had never even heard of reflux until I found this site! You'd think she would have recognised these things. It was because of her that I put all my problems down to 'baby blues' and lack of sleep.....crying and spewing were what babies did as far as I knew

[clazzat]

Just wanted to agree with everyone else - dd1 was similar at that age. One thing that she did was grow in spurts - so she would gain loads in a month and then not grow at all for a couple of months afterwards, and she still does this now.

Also agree that the hvs are a bit useless - having just been to the hv today to have x weighed and discover that he is slipping even further down the centiles and they are not interested at all!  However, you could also point out to your friend that the hv I have seen has said not to worry about x as he is gaining, even if it is slowly - which would seem to go for your friend's dd too.

[MadisonC]

DS weighs about 19LBS too.  He eats a variety of food.. a meat and potato kid! and drinks plenty of milk.  I wouldn't worry about it!