So is being in the 10th percentale for weight all that bad???

[Cetawin]

Frankly, it is not important at all...they are still growing. They will go throgh growth spurts too. One year they grow very little and the next year they grow three inches.

Sometimes, I want to smack these genius doctors. They think they know it all and in reality....they know very little.


PS...my parents heard the same junk about me and I have heard it all my life. I eat like a horse, literally. I still stay thin but I have a great metabolism. It too me 1 and half years of going to the gym daily, eating 3500 calories a day and lifting weights like a mad woman to put on 30 lbs... it came off in 6 months away from the gym. I am sitting at 91 lbs again. *sigh*

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
or genetics as well. Some of us are built like TBs and QH or Draft types and our kids would get somewhere between the lines in that direction.

I agree, if the kid is sick often, not eating well or putting on weight sitting around, then there is a problem!

Other than that, if they are active and eating well, no worries!

 

[Davaroo]

Never worry about skinny kids, if they are otherwise healthy. Some people are just inclined to eat less. Be grateful and make a positive out of it. Chances are good they will be skinny adults later, if you do.

Besides, give them a few years - however many it takes for them to get to about, say, 13 years old.
You'll wish for earlier days and smaller appettites then, I can assure you.

 

[Judy]

If my doctor had hassled me about my son's thin frame when he was small, I'd have found another doctor. Absurd. Malnourished is not about size but overall health, etc. It is quite possible to be obese and malnourished. "Normal" is just a setting on a washing machine. (Stolen from someone's avatar here!)

 

[raroo]

Quote:
My sister is like that, she was a big girl from day one, but always super active and healthy. But in high school she got pretty big and she later told me that she never feels full. She can eat and eat and her stomach never tells her she's full. A few years ago she went on Atkins to lose the initial weight, and then started introducing carbs back and started exercising. Now she's a total health and fitness nut and an absolute shadow of her former self, I've never seen her look so great!

She's on a program now where she eats a carb and a protein every two hours. So for breakfast two pieces of turkey bacon and a cup of oatmeal. Two hours later an apple and a cheese stick. For lunch a roast beef wrap. Another cheese stick and apple, or an apple and a protein bar. A healthy carb and protein dinner, then for dessert a fat free pudding mixed with protein powder. The program allows one cheat day a week. You can eat anything you want, chips and candy all day if you so please. Her second week on the program she lost two pounds! And its so easy because all the food is totally normal, it's not a diet but a way you can eat for life. her husband who is a pretty big guy well over 200lbs is on that program too, and after three weeks his stomach was smaller and his face was thinner. And he doesn't even exercise!

 

[Dar]

these charts and the chart for BMI are so old I am surprised they even still use them...

these charts are for the build of people in the 40's and 50's where 5'10" was considered tall

My DH is 6'4" and I am 5'10" so we are not short people and out kids were always in the 95th% range.

If I listened to those charts i should be about 140 lbs....i would look anorexic and sickly. I walk for 12 hours a day lifting patients in and out of wheel chairs on and off of beds, toilets floors you name it... I have a higher muscle mass % then the average woman but according to those charts I am morbidly obese (dont get me wrong i have chub but not 60lbs worth)...

as long as your son is active and eating i would not worry about it..maybe choose a litte bit of the higher calorie foods but not junk foods.

My kids are SUPER skinny and I give them a meal replacement as a snack like the vector cereal bar, its a total meal that they can carry in their hand ..it just provides a little extra calories but not junk calories.

 

[AHappychick]

I don't pay attention to the charts, but if they seem to skinny to you I would add some stuff to their diet to help them put on a few pounds. Doctors can be wrong but it seems like you might feel that they are indeed skinner than the rest of the kids so if that is the case then help them to put on some weight is surely could not hurt for them to gain a few pounds. Personally if I noticed my child was supper skinny I would adjust but not based on some out dated chart, I say go with your maternal instincts.

Not saying this was you but I met a woman once with a 14 month old that was so skinny. when I asked if he ate well, she said that he mostly plays with his food. I said well don't you feed him yourself (14 months is a bit young to be feeding yourself in my opinion) she said no she gives him the spork and lets him do it. I felt horrible and fed her son that day when she was not looking. I do not think that you did that but like I said before it could not hurt to try to up their intake a bit.

Also it is a medical fact that children need more sugar than adults, but not that corn fructose stuff, real sugar from fruit or cane, my ds eats lots of sugar but I bake the cookies and treats or buy organic. Other than getting sick once and a while my Dr said he was the healthiest baby and child he has as a patient.

good luck

 

[NRacine]

It's really important to look also at height, not just weight. Here is a link to the CDC and Prevention Body Mass Index calculator. BMI is weight over height squared. The percentiles used in this calculation are based on surveys of thousands of children reported in the year 2000. I also have a calculator based on the 2006 data, I can calculate that if you'd like to PM me a weight an height. There is a difference, as more children were considered overweight (85th percentile and over) or obese (95th percentile and over) in the 2006 data set. And I must agree with some of you that some children who qualify for the concerning categories don't look like it, and sometimes a body fat percentage test is a better way to analyze the body. But, there are other things to be concerned with like bone growth and heart health. As long as he doesn't have any other problems, there's not a lot you can do. You certainly don't want to start pumping him full of junk food to put weight on him.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

My daughter was so skinny the state told the school nurse to check on her diet at lunch and see what she could find out about her home "situation"! Luckily, the nurse knew us and knew DD. She is a kid on fast forward! She eats like a horse, but she revs so high she burns it off as fast as she eats it.

The same year DD2 was put in the 87th percentile for weight and was listed as overweight. OK so we starve one and overfeed the other??

Two months after the test she grew an inch and was suddenly in the 54th percentile.

My sister at 5'2" weighs 126lbs. On me, also 5'2" that would be starting to look chunky (no, seriously) on her it is not at all overweight because she is solid muscle. She runs five miles a day and can bench press more than her own body weight.

Yes, we have too many kids who are overweight. But there has got to be a better way to tell!

 

[farmerlor]

Blah, percentiles are just random stats. Whenever anybody questions me about my two youngest I remind them that their biological parents are small people (okay, I'm six foot so EVERYONE is small to me) but these bio parents are about 5 feet tall. That puts their bio parents below average for Americans too so it only makes sense that my children would below the national average.