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I have a happy healthy 13 month old boy. At his 1 year developmental check up his weight had not increased substantially and had dropped 3 lines on the percentile chart. I was really suprised as I think he is a good eater, not fussy or prone to food-time tantrums, he is eating pretty much what we are eating except when we have something spicy. I am vegetarian so we don`t prepare a lot of meat, but he has a meat dish at least once a week. He eats 3 meals and 3 snacks (at least)and is still breastfeeding 3 times in the day (and a few small feeds at night). The clinic want me to beef him up by feeding him more often and adding butter and cream to things. I was happy with how things were, and now it seems like a stress to try and force food at him all day, he is eating like he ate before and refusing all the extras. I have not been one to weigh him outside of clinic weigh-ins as I tend think his behaviour will tell me if he is needing more. He was one of those chubby breastfed babies but has really leaned out since he started crawling, he`s not walking yet. I just feel as though they are going by numbers and not by how the child actually is. Any tips?
It can be so confusing when you are suddenly told that someone believes you are off the track, I had that happen once and felt quite at a loss until it was cleared up.
I have a tip sheet for Huggies members on my site on underweightness in children that might help you. The link is: www.cadenchealth.com.au/babyandchild.htm, if you have any problem finding it just email me and I will forward it onto you.
In theory they say that your child`s growth and development are good indications of things such as diet. Having said this it is also true that up to 2 years of age shifts in percentiles can simply be due to genetic disposition. Certainly once they get moving it can be hard for them to grow at the same rate also. I know this is walking the middle line here, it is hard to say exactly what his change is attributable to in this forum.
Personally I believe protein is a far better option for improving a child`s weight. Fat of course having so many more calories `chubby`s` a little on up quickly, but at what cost I wonder?
Given he is on a largely vegetarian diet as I am sure you know you do need to be more vigilant with his diet to ensure he gets B12, EAA, iron and so on. Like any nutrition though a deficiency can affect healthy in lots of ways. I also have a tip sheet on vegetarian children if you were after some more information. The link is:
www.cadencehealth.com.au/SneakysNutritionResources.htm
Its near the bottom of the links.
I personally would opt for adding in another healthier options such as another `meat` meal, ideally fish or chicken. You could also add in a lovely fruit and yoghurt smoothie once a day, or ground nuts and seeds with his cereal (assuming no allergies) and so on.
I wrote a tip sheet assessing the number of serves of foods for different age groups, the link is:
Meal servings checks
It might just reassure you.
The most accurate way to assess things and more reassuring is to have his diet assessed via a good diet analysis, this way you can if there are any areas of concern and if so exactly what they are.
Hope this provides some light, all the best with it, it sounds to as though you are going along nicely with his eating.
All the best,
Leanne