Should I be concerned??

Lindsay

Lily had her 5 year well checkup last Friday..She will be 5 years old on the 5th of September..She measured 39 1/2 inches tall and is 35 pounds..Her ped is screaming(literally) that her growth has slowed down this year and she is now in the 35th percentile..Should I be concerned? She looks healthy..her iron was 12.6..great for her because of her history of low iron...Yes she is tiny but her bio mom is an extremly tiny person also..And I tried to explain this to the Ped but it was like I am starving her or something..Lily eats a very healthy diet..She is allergic to gluten,dairy,soy and apples but other than that she eats!!Here is a sample of a daily food intake for her..

Breakfast...bowl of rice cereal(we use baby rice still to help keep her iron up because it has been a problem) with added pears..3 turkey sausage links and a fruit smoothie(and by that I mean a fruit/veggie pouch like you can get at toys r us, she loves them and I can get extra veggies in her that way)

Lunch..is usually a hm lunchable(gf crackers,ham rounds,dairyfree cheese rounds,fruit cup,fruit snacks and bottle of water),or hm gf chicken noodle soup with sandwich and fruit..Or leftovers from the night before..

Supper..Usually something like gf pasta and meatballs,roast and potatos ect..That kind of thing..we eat meat,veggie and either potato or rice..

She snacks during the day also..fruit or gf crackers with peanut butter..

She drinks only water and organic rice milk..she doesn't eat that much in the way of sugar although it is only because she doesn't like it not because we don't have it...LOL She is starting to drink a bit of juice here and there.white grape and pear..she can't have apple..She takes a gummy multi vitamin..

But she looks healthy.Last year she did look like she could stand to gain weight and in a couple of pics her head looked to big for her body..We attributed that to all the gluten still coming out of her system and delaying her growth but now she looks great!! So should I be worried???

Wanted to add that she won't be seeing this Ped anymore because we moved to Michigan this week so she will be getting a new doc..

Oh and she has reached all the usual milestones..She is swimming and her T-ball coach this last summer said she has an arm on her that would impress most professional players..

Thanks for any input:))

babybaby

i am no expert, but sometimes i think that doctors are just basing their assessments of "normal" on chunky american kids. look at coryandamanda's babies: they are perfectly healthy looking children -- look totally normal, and yet their height is 90% and their weight is 25%, generally? that's crazy! that would mean they are super scrawny and yet they look like a perfect example of what children should look like.

whatever you do, don't let your doctor convince you to go the pediasure 3x a day route. i am really regretting going along with that. i would say if you daughter is eating normally and she just stops gaining weight altogether for an extended period of time, then get her checked out. otherwise, it's probably just her own growth curve that she's following, her own normal.

ninefirefly

The whole percentile chart is based off of the averages of healthy children in the US. So anywhere in the chart is fine they usually just care about their curve in the chart, that they are staying consistent. If her percentile is dramatically lower than it has been in the past then it would be more concerning in my opinion.

yfnr

Like Cory said, it would only be concerning if it was a drastic change from where she had been.

K has been under the 10th percentile for weight...but she's been that way since birth. My ped never blinks an eye.

M was around the 75th percentile for weight at birth but by 18 months was down to the 20th. He was eating fine and had no other concerns. Now at almost 3 he is still in the 20th percentile for weight with no issues, so we aren't concerned at all.

Lindsay

Well she said she dropped from being at 75% at her last year checkup..But I think she is constantly comparing her to her granddaughter who was born on the same day as Lily..She has done this since the beginning..Always trying to find something wrong because Cass is already doing this and Lily should be too..Thanks for the reassurance..She will be seeing a new doc soon for another issue so we will see what she says about it too:))

Zen

I'm always concerned about everything but I'd tell you not to be! Keep an eye on weight to make sure she's not losing. With percentile stats, major increases or drops are cause for concern, but not necessarily worry. You don't have to let a year go by without monitoring. You can just check her height and weight against the charts online. In and of itself, there's nothing to worry about being in the 35%

The times I worry is under 25% and over 75%. That's the time to assess and see if changes are needed. But if your little one is eating healthy and "looks" fine to you, she probably is!