Author Topic: underweight 1yr old  (Read 5973 times)

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Offline creations

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2013, 18:34:59 pm »
Appetite does tend to drop around 1yo, picks up again later.  I think it makes a big difference if other people are eating at the same time.  Also I found that there were many foods DS turned his nose at which he'd previously enjoyed.  It was as though he had reached a stage of development where he naturally questioned what he was eating, I used to half joke and say I was the court jester, you know testing the food for poison before offering it to the King.  If I served his food and he looked suspiciously at it I'd take a piece from his plate (despite the same thing being on my plate) and 'test for poison' by taking a bite and telling him it was fine.  Then he ate it all.
To me it is is like they have a developmental leap and begin to question their world all over again.  It makes sense if for example they are becoming more mobile because out in the 'wild' (so to speak) a mobile LO could realistically reach poisonous foods which they previously didn't have access to.  It makes sense to hang back and get the all clear from mum before eating it.  I know it's not like that in reality in our homes because we are providing all the food.  Just the way I looked at it, same as a phase of SA coming with greater mobility, it stops LOs falling off cliffs if they feel the need to stay close to mummy.


Offline eva026

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2013, 20:50:42 pm »
To me it is is like they have a developmental leap and begin to question their world all over again.  It makes sense if for example they are becoming more mobile because out in the 'wild' (so to speak) a mobile LO could realistically reach poisonous foods which they previously didn't have access to.  It makes sense to hang back and get the all clear from mum before eating it.  I know it's not like that in reality in our homes because we are providing all the food.  Just the way I looked at it, same as a phase of SA coming with greater mobility, it stops LOs falling off cliffs if they feel the need to stay close to mummy.

Very true! Nature is so clever, now just explain the thinking behind painful teething;) Maybe one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time...





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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2013, 21:24:15 pm »
Ah, painful teething, yes, well that's all to do with reducing the chances of competition - sibling rivalry if you will.  When the highly demanding NB stage is over and mummy and daddy are celebrating the STTN phase something must be done to make mummy and daddy think "wow this is impossible, let's not have another" or at the very least make them so sleep deprived that they have no time, energy or motivation to DTD.  That way LO has a higher chance of not having to share mummy's love or that tasty buffalo Daddy just dragged into the cave ;)
I mean honestly would any couple have a second or third child if it wasn't for ibuprofen?


Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #18 on: February 26, 2013, 21:38:17 pm »
I mean honestly would any couple have a second or third child if it wasn't for ibuprofen?

Sure! When your second child has a super high pain threshhold and never, ever was bothered by teething. Darn that mother nature...I'm not sure I will be so lucky with #3!!
Heidi




Offline malenka

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #19 on: February 27, 2013, 00:59:53 am »
A couple of quick questions for you. Did you BF DS? If so, when/did you stop? In BF babies, you can get a pretty steep drop in weight when they stop/slow down BF. If you formula fed, have you changed that intake?

My DR had some concerns about my DS as he dropped through the percentiles, as you're mentioning. As some pp have said, it's not so much where they lie on the growth chart, it's if they drop drastically from one percentile to another. You mentioned that you recently moved - is it possible that they're using a different growth chart? I know there are a couple of growth charts out there these days and there's a pretty big difference in percentiles from one to another (one takes into account BF babies more so than others).

Anyways, just some food for thought.
Meredith - Mommy to




Offline delancepants

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #20 on: February 27, 2013, 08:26:31 am »
Creations thank you so much for this...it really seemed like he decided he wanted mummy's food or nothing.  so I think you may be right.  Yesterday he hardly ate again, and he woke at 11pm crying, I thought due to new sleep routine, but after a couple of rough hours I realised he was hungry/thirsty/both!  even after us trying so hard to feed him yesterday.  so today I've tried to make his food more like mine, sharing my plate, my cutlery, letting him feed me...he's eaten so much you wouldn't believe!! Maybe just cos he's hungry, but maybe the sharing helped too.  Love your explanation of teething pain too, that ones been bugging me for a while!

Malenka, no it's not a different chart, it's the WHO chart I looked up online.  I'm still BF him.but I think the decline happened even earlier than when we started weaning.  I think the crawling at 4 mo may have something to do with it, plus the fact that he wad sick and teething a lot around 6-9 mo which really affected his appetite.  Maybe I'm worrying unnecessarily...this last few days he's still hardly eaten anything despite my best efforts.  I just want to be sure that I'm doing everything I possibly can.  If he still chooses not to eat even when I offer plenty of tasty nutritious options well then fine. But at least I'll know I did everything I could and then I'll be happy to accept that he's just going to be in the lower percentiles.

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #21 on: February 27, 2013, 09:20:54 am »
Another thing to take into account.  In the UK it's advised LOs this age aren't weighed more frequently than every 6 months (unless there is a valid medical reason).  I think it may be because through teething they tend not to eat and through growth spurts they eat SO much, that there can be fluctuation which can worry parents unnecessarily.  I would say if your LO has energy and LOOKS in proportion then all is likely fine.  See my boy is very small but he looks in proportion.  When I occasionally lift another child the same age to help out the mum I am utterly shocked at how heavy and solid they are in comparison to my small, agile boy but all of them are healthy.

With regards sharing food etc.  It can help a great deal if dishes are put out on the table as communal food and every one serves up at the table.  I do this as much as I can, although usually still have DS's on a separate serving dish because i remove his earlier to cool down and try to keep the adult food warm.  It does still help though.  Also there are some great toddler cutlery which looks just like adult cutlery, totally stainless steal and fully functioning but smaller (and the knife is not so sharp), we have this for DS so that everything looks as much like the adult meal as possible.  When I first gave him a spoon it was plastic (my mum had given me some which I hadn't chosen) and he went crazy mad with me and didn't recognize this object as a spoon. As soon as I gave him an adult teaspoon he was happy and ate.  The cutlery sets I have for him include a spoon too.  Not sure where you are but they range in price in the UK form stupidly expensive to stupidly cheap - for the same thing.  So shop around if you decide to get some.  Or an adult cake fork could be a good solution because they are also shorter.  The 'real' cutlery is also much easier for LO to learn to stab food with the fork, some toddler cutlery is as good as useless as a tool because they are so rounded for safety, just leading to frustration rather than skill development.  Obviously use whatever you are comfortable with for your own LOs developmental stage.
I don't think there's any harm in having food from your plate for a short time, and no harm in gently pointing out that his food is the same too.

He shouldn't really be hungry/thirsty in the night unless he's been ill or is coming down with a cold.  I offer DS a small supper before his bath and bed time routine, just something like a piece of toast or a small pancake, and a sippy of milk to make sure he's had a chance to eat if he missed out at dinner time.


Offline delancepants

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #22 on: February 27, 2013, 12:32:33 pm »
That's interesting re weighing the babies...  I was in ireland when DS 1 was small and i was able to get him weighed any time i wanted at the local health visitor's clinic.  Now we're in India and they weigh DS2 every time I go to the doctor, so every few weeks.

He is in proportion, he just looks like a 9 month old rather than a 1yr old.  I suppose it's not his actual weight that bothers me, just the thought that I might be doing something wrong.  If I can do everything reasonable to encourage him to eat and he still chooses not to, well then fine, as long as he's healthy (which he is) I can accept that. 

Yeah last night was weird, as we'd worked so hard during the day to encourage him to eat but he refused to eat more than a few bites of anything.  I tried the bedtime snack too (which I think is a great idea and seems to have helped on some evenings) but still he was so hungry in the night.  I have just switched him to one nap (trying it out to see how it goes) so he is a bit overtired, and I did wonder if the teething is finally kicking in, but there are no other signs, so I guess we'll see how tonight goes.

Offline ~inbalance~

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #23 on: February 27, 2013, 13:23:05 pm »
Hugs Fwiw I don't think you are doing anything wrong.
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Offline delancepants

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #24 on: February 27, 2013, 14:51:04 pm »
Aw thanks. I guess I may be being hyper vigilant because i'd prefer to keep his diet near vegan for a while.  I've heard of kids getting into trouble with poorly planned vegan diets and whilst it was fairly easy with DS1 in Ireland with so much variety in food available, here the options are more limited.  Plus now I'm a lot more sleep deprived, sometimes I wonder if there are any brain cells left, ha ha?

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #25 on: February 28, 2013, 09:43:23 am »
In the UK it's advised LOs this age aren't weighed more frequently than every 6 months
OK, I just checked my book again and I was a little out on my ages.
At 6-12 months age it is recommended to weigh at 2 month intervals.
At 1 year it's recommended they are not weighed more than once every 3 months and not less than once every 6 months.
At 2 years it is not more than once every 6 months then at 2.5 years and then at school entry.

The clinics in the UK are freely available so it is not uncommon for mums to take their LOs for weighing more frequently sometimes even every week, I know the clinics I attended they would never tell you if you went too often, they just do the weighing and mark the chart without questioning how often you go.
My LO has gone to hospital a few times and they always weight them there regardless of when the last time of weighing was, it's so they can be accurate with medication doses and monitoring of weight gain/loss if LO becomes very poorly.  These are like extra weigh ins rather than regular ones.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong, and I doubt your Lo is underweight or that there is a problem.  it's totally natural to worry though.
FWIW my boy still wear 9-12 month tops and 12-18 month trousers (in leg length) even though he has turned 2 years old!  His waist is the size of a new born, he fits 0-3 month baby trousers for his waist size but the length stops at his knees like shorts.  I've had all his 12-18 month trousers altered at the waist to account for his small build.

Are you sure he's hungry in the night?  Do you give water in the day and before sleep?
I had a short spell of DS asking for food just before BT (that is after having had dinner to his fill then supper to his fill) and was advised by BWers to increase his protein intake.  He didn't take much protein at that time, so I changed up his meals and made breakfast a protein meal because he is so hungry at breakfast that he is likely to take a good portion of protein then.  Because he had that, he was no longer asking for food before bed.  Breakfast seems a long way from BT but the calorie intake across the day is what counts for a 1year old rather than what they eat right before BT (like a new born).  overall his diet improved too because I couldn't rely on him always having protein at other times of the day, he would often choose veg or carbs from his plate instead.


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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #26 on: March 01, 2013, 15:08:18 pm »
Well that night time hunger was just a one off I think, not sure what caused it, had a vaccine recently, maybe something to do with that.

Yeah my four year old is a little small, my husband often puts him in the baby's 12-18 month clothes by mistake!  It makes me laugh because I cant imagine how he doesn't remember DS1 wearing those clothes as a toddler!  DS1 got pretty skinny a couple of times, when we first came to India around the age of two, due to diarrhea and sickness.  That really freaked me out.  Took me months to build him back up again.  I don't know how he compared on percentiles though as id stopped weighing him so much at that stage.



Offline ~inbalance~

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #27 on: March 01, 2013, 15:11:41 pm »
If it makes you feel better my 4yo wears 3T clothes, and my almost 3 yo wears anything from 3T down to 12 mo stuff! In fact the other day he wore a 6-12mos swim suit! Lol Most of my ds2's pants are 18-24 mo.
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Offline MasynSpencerElliotte

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Re: underweight 1yr old
« Reply #28 on: March 01, 2013, 15:19:25 pm »
In fact the other day he wore a 6-12mos swim suit!

lol, last year I bought Spencer (4) a new suit from Old Navy (size 3T) and ended up giving it to Masyn (who is 6). Spencer wears Masyn's 4T suit. 
Heidi