Anyone with a below the chart baby?

prism207

Catherine is only 14.6 lbs at 9 months.  She's 26 inches long.  That is a weight gain of only .5 lbs since 6 months, and she has now fallen completely off the chart the dr is using.  I'm not sure what chart is being used, but it is probably the old school non breastfed one, so there's that.  The WHO breastfeeding chart puts her on the chart, but still with a percentile drop between 6 and 9 months.

My son was larger, in the 60th percentile around 6 months, and he fell a good bit on the chart at his 9 month appt too, but not quite so dramatically, and, being larger, had more room to fall.  

Catherine is developing mentally and physically (other than growth wise) perfectly normally, as far as I can tell.  She crawled before 8 months and has a very strong trunk and legs, and she babbles all the time.  If there's no other sign of a problem, is being tiny  and slow to grow really a problem? 

casey820

If your pedi isn't concerned then it must not be a problem.  E has dropped a lot.  She was born at 9 lb 1 oz.  She started off at 81 and 78% for height and weight.  At 9 months she was only 17 lb 4 oz. and 31 and 23% for height and weight.  Her pedi isn't concerned.  If your LO is meeting all the milestones and developing normal she might just be on the small side. 

prism207

My pedi is concerned, I have to go back in a month-ish for a weight check.  And she gave all this advice about fattening C up, which I remember the same exact conversation regarding Samuel, so...I just don't know how much any of it matters!  We made a huge deal of trying to give Samuel fattening foods-mostly things like egg yolk and avocado, but also adding oil to his food, on the pedi's advice.  I think it isn't the best habit to form, or the best way to train the kids taste buds, so I was and am conflicted on doing that sort of thing.  I'd much rather push veggies on Catherine, and not ones drenched in olive oil.  (Dairy sensitivity so no butter)  I did find a store with coconut yogurt and she lapped that up today, and that feels better to me than the oil thing.  Basically, we are supposed to add oil to nearly everything she eats.  And she prefers to self feed most things, we've done very little pureed/spoon fed foods due to resistance to eating that way, so I don't have a lot of confidence that she'll continue to eat the yogurt.  

I guess really what I'm wondering is would you soak all your kids foods in oil in an effort to fatten them up?   

 

Tulips114

Yep, L is below the chart. At 9 months she was only 13.8 lbs and 25 3/4 inches.  The Dr wanted to do thyroid blood work, but said she would give us a month. Then the following week L had a reaction to peanut butter so we had to go get blood work for that and so we just did the thyroid blood work at the same time so she wouldn't have to get poked again. Her thyroid is normal.

I am not going to add oil to everything she eats, but I am trying to add things like avocado, yogurt, cottage cheese. In fact this is the reason I wanted to give her peanut butter. I buy the natural, no sugar kind, so it's actually high calorie and good fat, I am bummed she is allergic. 

carolyn6609

My L is below the chart as well. We just had her check up at 9.5 months and she was 15.1 lbs and 26.5 inches. Her percentile nose dive was evident at her 6 month appointment and we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist. She was spitting up excessively (literally constantly all day) so she is on medication for that, and we were also told to add oil to her bottles (she gets expressed breast milk when I am at work) and give her high fat solids. I have had the same reservations about starting those unhealthy habits. We did add the oils, etc, and her growth was a little better between 6 and 9 months, I think mostly because she's not spitting everything up. Honestly, I am not that worried at this point. My daughter is happy and healthy. She is small. My H and I are not big people so I never expected her to be very big. BF babies tend to be smaller anyway. Our pedi was pleased with her progress at her nine month appointment but told us "she's still very underweight". I am taking this with a grain of salt. Some kids are just small!

Malin22000

We aren't below the charts here, just on the small side of them (12%). E was 15lb 12oz at her 9 month. I wouldn't drench everything in oil but I would definitely give her a lot of high fat food. The thing I do get concerned about is making sure she gets enough healthy fat that her brain develops normally.