2 yo is 94th percentile for height, below 1st percentile for weight

[Anonymous]

DD was born skinny and long and has kept up with her weight curve, but now that she's 2 they are looking at BMI and she is underweight. We have been giving her whole milk and we try to give high caloric foods like yogurt and cheese but I am pretty militant about not too many high salt/sugar foods which is what she loves.

Do people know of good resources on:
1. For my own understanding, why BMI is important? Not doubting at all that we need to get her weight up, of course I trust the pediatrician, but it's always helpful for me to understand the why of things.
2. What are good strategies for increasing weight? Obviously high caloric foods, ped suggested smoothies which I am on board with. What about eating schedules? Are more snacks better or fewer snacks for weight gain?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD was born skinny and long and has kept up with her weight curve, but now that she's 2 they are looking at BMI and she is underweight. We have been giving her whole milk and we try to give high caloric foods like yogurt and cheese but I am pretty militant about not too many high salt/sugar foods which is what she loves.

Do people know of good resources on:
1. For my own understanding, why BMI is important? Not doubting at all that we need to get her weight up, of course I trust the pediatrician, but it's always helpful for me to understand the why of things.
2. What are good strategies for increasing weight? Obviously high caloric foods, ped suggested smoothies which I am on board with. What about eating schedules? Are more snacks better or fewer snacks for weight gain?

Sorry to clarify, below 1st percentile for BMI, not weight. Weight is 25th percentile.

[Anonymous]

We don't do snacks either. Just do real food and more of it. Like more cheese in her scrambled eggs, baked sweet potato wedges with butter or oil, peanut butter with apples, butter on most vegetables. We aren't militant, but I don't like snacking and we just have dessert on holidays or Friday/Sat night.

[Anonymous]

Kids Eat in Color and Feeding Littles both have tips on increasing calories for kids on Insta (like adding a layer of oil/butter/ghee to toast before adding other toppings). And they also say snacking/grazing more actually leads to less weight gain. Just make sure meals are all high calorie, and you aren't eating lots of healthy but low calorie fruits/veggies only.

But if still on growth chart, this may just be your kids body type. Sounds weird to me that pedi is all of a sudden concerned just because now 2. Maybe get second opinion or referral to dietician to confirm?

[Anonymous]

I have a kid who has always been around 25% for height <5% weight. I guess I would want to know from your ped why the concern now if your kid is maintaining her growth curve. My child's ped has always said that she's built the way she's built and not to worry. Personally, I don't worry too much about sugar as long as my kid is eating a good variety of food. If you do want to increase her calories maybe foods like homemade ice cream or rice pudding which are rich but you can control the sugar.

For snacks vs meals, I know some people say to try to consolidate eating around meals and some say give plenty of snacks and small meals. I do the latter because my kid seems to have a really fast metabolism and just can't eat enough at meals to keep her going until the next one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids Eat in Color and Feeding Littles both have tips on increasing calories for kids on Insta (like adding a layer of oil/butter/ghee to toast before adding other toppings). And they also say snacking/grazing more actually leads to less weight gain. Just make sure meals are all high calorie, and you aren't eating lots of healthy but low calorie fruits/veggies only.

But if still on growth chart, this may just be your kids body type. Sounds weird to me that pedi is all of a sudden concerned just because now 2. Maybe get second opinion or referral to dietician to confirm?

Yeah I mean she wasn't like alarmist about it. She just mentioned it and said to give her high calorie foods, said we could see a dietician if we want but didn't say we needed to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids Eat in Color and Feeding Littles both have tips on increasing calories for kids on Insta (like adding a layer of oil/butter/ghee to toast before adding other toppings). And they also say snacking/grazing more actually leads to less weight gain. Just make sure meals are all high calorie, and you aren't eating lots of healthy but low calorie fruits/veggies only.

But if still on growth chart, this may just be your kids body type. Sounds weird to me that pedi is all of a sudden concerned just because now 2. Maybe get second opinion or referral to dietician to confirm?

Yeah I mean she wasn't like alarmist about it. She just mentioned it and said to give her high calorie foods, said we could see a dietician if we want but didn't say we needed to.

I'm not the top poster, but based on your comment above, OP, at 2 some parents stop giving full fat dairy. I would think your ped was just saying that you should keep giving your kid high calorie/fat foods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids Eat in Color and Feeding Littles both have tips on increasing calories for kids on Insta (like adding a layer of oil/butter/ghee to toast before adding other toppings). And they also say snacking/grazing more actually leads to less weight gain. Just make sure meals are all high calorie, and you aren't eating lots of healthy but low calorie fruits/veggies only.

But if still on growth chart, this may just be your kids body type. Sounds weird to me that pedi is all of a sudden concerned just because now 2. Maybe get second opinion or referral to dietician to confirm?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't do snacks either. Just do real food and more of it. Like more cheese in her scrambled eggs, baked sweet potato wedges with butter or oil, peanut butter with apples, butter on most vegetables. We aren't militant, but I don't like snacking and we just have dessert on holidays or Friday/Sat night.

NP I think for young children there is nothing wrong with snacks as long as they are healthy. My kids also ate goldfish and yet today do not eat goldfish as adults.

https://www.romper.com/p/how-many-snacks-should-toddlers-eat-dietitians-weigh-in-30387514

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't do snacks either. Just do real food and more of it. Like more cheese in her scrambled eggs, baked sweet potato wedges with butter or oil, peanut butter with apples, butter on most vegetables. We aren't militant, but I don't like snacking and we just have dessert on holidays or Friday/Sat night.

NP I think for young children there is nothing wrong with snacks as long as they are healthy. My kids also ate goldfish and yet today do not eat goldfish as adults.

https://www.romper.com/p/how-many-snacks-should-toddlers-eat-dietitians-weigh-in-30387514

PP here. I'm sure it's different for every kid, but mine were eating snacks and then not eating dinner. And we thought dinner was really important for our family: teaching good manner, our food traditions and of course the food is healthier. On weekends we did start a "tapas lunch", so lunch feels more like one big snack. It's normally tiny bits of dinner leftovers with lots of different cut up veggies, hard boiled eggs and nuts.

To the OP- we had to cut down on milk to get our daughter's weight up. She was drinking milk and filling up. I think it coats your stomach and makes you not feel as full. We stopped offering it at meals and she eats more food now. She still likes to relax after dinner with milk though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't do snacks either. Just do real food and more of it. Like more cheese in her scrambled eggs, baked sweet potato wedges with butter or oil, peanut butter with apples, butter on most vegetables. We aren't militant, but I don't like snacking and we just have dessert on holidays or Friday/Sat night.

NP I think for young children there is nothing wrong with snacks as long as they are healthy. My kids also ate goldfish and yet today do not eat goldfish as adults.

https://www.romper.com/p/how-many-snacks-should-toddlers-eat-dietitians-weigh-in-30387514

PP here. I'm sure it's different for every kid, but mine were eating snacks and then not eating dinner. And we thought dinner was really important for our family: teaching good manner, our food traditions and of course the food is healthier. On weekends we did start a "tapas lunch", so lunch feels more like one big snack. It's normally tiny bits of dinner leftovers with lots of different cut up veggies, hard boiled eggs and nuts.

To the OP- we had to cut down on milk to get our daughter's weight up. She was drinking milk and filling up. I think it coats your stomach and makes you not feel as full. We stopped offering it at meals and she eats more food now. She still likes to relax after dinner with milk though.

OP here - hmm interesting. DD loves milk. I sometimes offer it only after food so she doesn't fill up as much on it when I am concerned about constipation.

[Anonymous]

Please feed your child.

[Anonymous]

My daughter had this same profile at that age. The first thing I would ask is what do her parents look like. It might just be her body type. My ped took one look at me (tall and skinny) and said yes she’s underweight based on BMI but she’s steady in her growth curves so just keep doing what you’re doing.

She’s now 9 and she’s just a tall, slight kid. Perfectly healthy.

But if you’re looking for high calorie and healthy foods a kid that age will eat - try nuts, avocados.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry in the slightest about 25% weight. My dd was 90 height, 10 in weight at that age. She was and remains a perfect weight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please feed your child.

Sorry, did I ever in any way indicate that I was not or would not feed my child? Why would you say this?