DS2 will be one next week. He's only 25th percentile for age/weight. I expected him to be a little on the small side as DH is Indian and in his state the people are generally quite small. also DS1 is on the small side but as a baby never really went down below about 30th or 25th percentile. However, DS2 was a good size at birth, 3.6kg full term, so his growth rate has obviously been dropping. . He started crawling at 4 months and he suffers badly with phlegm when teething nd sick, which I think may reduce his appetite. the last year has bee pretty crazy with us emigrating to India, so I didn't notice that he wad small until about two months ago. Although retrospectively I can see the problem went back at least to 7 months, but maybe longer, but we didn't get him weighed between 4-7 months. Anyway I started trying ti feed him up and from 9th percentile at 7 months, I git him to 15th percentile at 10 mo and 22nd percentile at 11 mo. However I just got him weighed two days ago and he's slipped back down ti 15th percentile. I cant really see any specific cause, he wasn't sick, teething or going through anything else extraordinary in those few weeks, he just stopped eating as much. I decided it was prob just that he'd become aware that we were eating other stuff and he decided he wasn't happy with his own food anymore! (I had him on quite a simple diet, fruit, nuts, seeds, lentil, beans and veggies, which clearly was working for a while, until he changed his mind!)
So...I have changed his diet to increase variety and calorie content. I'm not questioning 'what' to give him, I have some nutrition training, so that's not an issue. But I do have a couple.if questions. The first one is that the doctotold me to avoid giving him snacks, just stick to three meals a day. I can see the logic in this in order to stretch his tummy and also to keep him going over night, but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience in thus area, I wonder if I could add in one small snack without affecting meals too much. Or maybe drinks like juice...
Second question... He seems a little picky in that he will eat a little but if something and then refuse it. so I've found myself offering up to 8 different things at a meal, just in case he will agree to eat more. And actually it seems to be working, he might refuse the first two things, but eat the third, then refuse the next two things and eat the fifth, then refuse a couple more but eat a ton of the next thing I offer. I'm sure it's partly because I'm trying to start with the healthier things or the higher calorie foods rather than what he wants to eat out if choice, but I'm too scared to stop doing this now as it is working to get him eating more! Am I digging a home for myself by giving so many choices? Has anyone else been through this? Will I be able ti change this later or is there some kind of compromise I can make now?