Skinny Baby

Last month at my daughter's check up, the doctor said my baby was dropping out of her weight percentile.

She is 9 months and 16.5 lbs. The doctor showed me the growth chart with all of these "curves". So I guess that's bad. Although, to me, my daughter is perfectly healthy and strong. I was all confused and couldn't believe it.

It's like, is she trying to call me a bad mom? .....maybe I am a bad mom?! I mean I feed my baby!...but what if I haven't been feeding her enough though! I can't believe I've been starving my poor baby! No, never again. I love my baby and the doctor is telling me I'm starving her.

So now I am beginning to mix powdered formula and baby cereal with baby food in a jar as a meal. Not only that I feed her from the table whatever I eat. In between that is nursing and cereal snacks like cheerios and fruit loops/apple jacks,plus juice w/water. Sometimes I even give her whole milk in a cup. To hell with "no sugar or organic" this and that, I'm a mom on a mission. I have 2 1/2 more months until her next check up. I mean, what if they call social services on me and have them take away my baby!

I have become obsessed with feeding my baby. I hope I'm doing the right thing by plumping her up. I don't want to over feed her and then they say she is too big. It's scary. So now I guess I will just have to keep feeding her alot then wait and see.

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Digital Femme     |2008-08-21 16:08:37 Dear Donna, Let's just take a breather here. You are NOT a bad mom and your baby is perfectly fine. What that average percentile chart means, is basically THAT. An AVERAGE. You certainly cannot force a baby to eat more than what it can. If there is something wrong physiologically, with your baby that interferes with her appetite or digestion, then you would need to look into that further. To be honest I really think that your baby just does not fit the average scale. YAY! Your baby is NOT average. Your baby is special. I am a nurse and believe me, many children do not fit that Percentile graph. That is like saying everyone going through puberty has to go through all the stages together, when we know that is not true. The one thing that is not right about these medical graphs is that they do not take into account the INDIVIDUAL. Medicine NEVER takes into account the INDIVIDUAL but instead they cluster everyone into a standard that gets represented as a NORM. Which is very wrong. Please try not to worry. I think that many doctors have the WRONG approach. Many doctors do not have the empathy or the understanding when it comes to communicating. Most of these doctors ONLY know the theory from their books. My Dear Donna, you are a wonderful mother. You do not need to feed and feed and feed you daughter. Next time you go to the doctor you tell her that NOT all babies fit that percentile graph. They have to take into account the race, parent's genes etc. *hug* I wish I could speak to that doctor. Shame on them for making you feel bad. Often, doctors do that. But they are just the non=compassionate,inexperienced ones.

lsmapp  - Skinny Support     |2008-08-21 17:02:16 My middle child has always been skinny - he's usually around the 10% for weight (but 90 for height so he looks like a beanpole). Let me assure you it can be very normal for a baby to be thin and REALLY normal for them to go a little down on the charts around this age when they are getting more active! Don't worry about overfeeding your baby - just feed her when she's hungry and love her - you'll be fine!!

supermom   |2008-09-02 22:35:02 Thank you guys sooo much!

kikarose   |2008-09-05 17:47:32 Donna, I agree with everyone, deep, deep breath. You are not letting your baby starve. You are doing a GREAT job. Those charts don't usually take into account the lighter weights of breast fed babies. What the doctor needs to look at is the trend rather than a one time weigh in. If your baby has been consistently on the light side, then don't worry. If there is a significant drop in percentage then maybe there's cause for concern, or it could just be that 1) your baby started crawling and is burning more calories 2) your baby was sick and lost some weight 3) a different scale was used Or any number of other issues. Back off from the extra calories like adding formula to the cereal or giving whole milk. Focus on feeding your baby foods that are naturally high in fat like cheese, yogurt, or avocado. Things will balance out in a healthy way. Hang in there! It's all going to be ok. And we promise, you're NOT a bad mom!

Anonymous   |169.244.70.xxx |2008-10-02 09:20:53 Hello There- I too have a skinny baby. She's in the 5th percentile in weight and 50th in height (16 pounds at 10 months). The doc has been great...He says things like, "She's healthy and active and has the same body type as her parents, just perfect." He's the best javascript:JOSC_emoticon("" But I do have a question about eating and sleeping.... She eats dinner at 60, then bath, and a nursing session before bed. SI out her down while she's still awake and she drifts right off. At 40ish in the morning she wakes up ravenous and nurses again. I would love to have her sleep through the night, but if I put her back down she sobs until she is fed. If I feed her, she drops right back to sleep. It definitely isn't a sleep issue per say because she takes good naps, goes down in her crib without complaint etc. I don't want to deny her food if she is truly hungry, and because she is skinny I have been nursing her when she cries in the wee hours, any advice???

honee  - I know how you feel   |91.32.180.xxx |2008-10-08 17:00:50 I was told today by my baby's Doctor that she is in the 25% of her chart. I am so worried. I feed her all the time.She doesn't consistantlt eat jarred foods yet. She gags on them, but i still try to feed her every meal. She turned 6 months today and weighs 13.1 pounds. I get so aggravated when she won't eat her food or cereal. She always only wants the bottle. GRRRRRR what to do, what to do. I hope everything turns out for our both our babies, girl. but trust Me, we aren't bad Mom's.

carriejyu  - Also have a tiny son     |2008-10-09 10:25:59 My son doesn't even register on the growth chart anymore, he's down below the 5th percentile line. He's 14 months old now, and has had problems with gagging and vomiting since he started solid food (doing much better now, finally). We've had this evaluated, and it's nothing serious, some kids just take longer to accept textures. So to Honee- just be patient, she'll get it eventually, I promise! Our doctors recommended something similar to what Kikarose said above- giving him high fat, but not high-sugar foods. He eats a lot of avocados with full-fat yogurt and cheese is a favorite snack. The thing with a small kid is just keeping them on their own growth curve and seeing how they develop, never mind about how they compare to others. Good luck to everyone!

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