beksp...
i had a checkup for my daughter today, as we have moved to a new town & wanted to get her a gp. when she was weighed at 16.5mths, the health nurse was concerned that she had only gained 200g in 2.5mths. then at 19mths she'd gained 600g, so wasn't too concerned. but now she is 23mths & she has lost 800g in 4mths... this puts her down two percentiles!
i am a little concerned & the doctor wants to check her weight again in a mth. he said it was something to keep an eye on, but he wasn't overly concerned at this moment, as she is active & not sick & reaching her milestones, etc.
she was born in the 5th percentile (only 2.6kg), but has steadily made her way up to the 50th percentile, but now has dropped back down to the 5th percentile. weighing only 10kgs.
she eats well & everything she eats is healthy, with a few treats here & there. i am careful about her sugar intake & try to make the fat she consumes "good fats". she eats a well balanced diet, from all the food groups.
the only thing that i can think of, is that we took away the bottle 2mths ago, & since then it has been hard to get her to drink milk. before then she also used to have a bottle of formula a day as well as a bottle of full cream milk. now she refuses to drink the formula & we have to make fruit, yoghurt & milk smoothies in order to get her to drink milk. most days she will have 200mls, some days more, some days as little as 50mls. it has been a struggle & very stressful. we have upped her intake of cheese & yoghurt to compansate.
now i am concerned about her weight loss...
i am after some advice as to how i can get her to drink more milk & also ideas to get her weight back up?
by the detail you have given it is hard to get a consistent picture. It appears she can gain weight, but potentially doesn’t hold it without the heavy energy intake from milk. You do have to watch milk intake, given it has so much calcium it can interfere with iron, but also the amount of energy in it can mean it displaces real food in the diet (see link to my fact sheet on Huggies for more information).
To me it actually sounds like you are on the ball. That is exactly what I would recommend, a good healthy smoothie in the day (after meals), along with other nutrient and energy dense foods. It may just be a case of getting that balance right, now that the formula has gone (which is a good thing), it’s better to get that balance with whole foods as apposed to fluids that can displace food.
I do have a fact sheet on my website about Underweight Children (www.sneakys.com.au), if you wanted to download it, there is a lot more info there. If you aren’t able to find it just flick me an email and I can forward it to you.
Milk
http://www.huggies.com.au/baby-care/baby-feeding/nutrition/milk-intake
See if you can get a clearer picture of whether there is an issue, or if your toddler is simply heading to her pre-determined body weight (percentile band). The next check up will give you a better indication if there is a pattern that is of concern. Fingers crossed it all settles into a consistent rate.
All the best
Leanne