Hi everyone, I am the proud grandma of a 2 year old little girl. She turned 2 the end of April. My son and his wife are very good parents and do the best they are able for their daughter. they took little one for her checkup and found she only weighed in at 22 pounds 6 ounces. They explained as they have in the past that she is not a real good eater, some meals it is 2 or 3 bites and she pushes her food away. They will find a food she likes and she will eat good for a while and then no thank you. The doctor told them she is malnourished which upset them greatly. They asked her as they have in the past what they could do to get weight on this little sweetie and she gave them a sheet of paper with maybe 3 or 4 suggestions such as peanut butter, butter yogurt and cheese. My first suggestion to them is get a new doctor. Anyway, does anyone out there have any suggestions that have worked for them. She is healthy happy and very very active. Non stop kid. Smiles all the time Talks very well. Thank you so very much and blessings to all who answer this message. I would so appreciate some help.

My son was very small for his age. When he was about that same age the dr. wanted me to feed him pure butter!!!

Turns out he was severly allergic to milk! Anything dairy made him throw up so quickly! My daughter who is allergic to milk just gets bad stomach aches. She may like the food but it hurts later so she just won't eat it.

My thoughts are that if a child is happy and running around, they aren't malnourished. My son was so very active. I knew he must be getting enough nurishment or he'd be lethargic and unhappy. Dr.'s don't always know everything. Even now at 10yr he's very active and skinny as all get out! lol

Jeannie

Get a second opinion. If they are only looking at the weight that is a crock of bull, because some kids are just small. My oldest was barely 18 lbs at 2 years, but her weight was proportionate to her height.

If the weight is NOT proportionate, then there is an underlying cause and she needs to see a specialist and have some tests done. A 2 year old will NOT starve themselves if there is food available, plain and simple. Not even a picky eater will.

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Angel, et al

I also have a "picky" eater and have found if we play a game she will eat more bites. We play 'feed the baby', she gets a bib and then sits in her chair and mommy feeds the baby. she will open right up. Hope this helps.

i too have a very small child she will be 5 in november and just hit 30lbs however her weight goes with her height she has a younger brother and he is about just turned 3 in may he is about 2 inches taller and he weighs 35 lbs my oldest is in very good health she is just a small girl and probably will be for her whole life accoding to drs

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mother of 3
ages 4,3,and 1
my pride and joy

live life to its fullest you never know when it may be to late to do all the things you would have done tomorrow

My son is also a very picky eater so once in a while i try to get him to drink something called PediaSure. Its one of those shake type drinks for extra nourishment. It comes in a few flavors like vanilla and chocolate. They should ask her pediatrician about it.

My daughter is a healthy 13 year old. She's almost 5'4" and weighs 104 pounds. She weighed 17 pounds at one year old, 21 pounds at two years old, and 23 pounds at three years old. She had to ride in a car seat until the summer before third grade because she didn't weigh 40 pounds. At 20 months old, she was examined for failure to thrive, but was not found to be suffering from it. She's never been a big eater, and still isn't--she does eat when she's hungry, and she does eat EVERY day. She is an elite athlete--NO, NOT IN GYMNASTICS--and must be getting enough nourishment and calories since she has the energy and endurance to train and compete, and has not lost weight. She eats a lot of cereal with whole milk, and she loves salad and ice cream. She's not a big meat eater, but does like seafood and eggs. I also make sure she takes a multi-vitamin every day. Our pediatrician said that as long as she remained on a constant growth curve, which for her was the 0-5 percentile, and did not fall below HER "norm", he was okay with it.

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/growthcharts/girlsbirth.gif

According to the growth chart, her weight is below the chart. When a childs weight drops off the chart, the Docs become concerned. I am surprised the Doctor didn't refer them to a Nutritionist. You son and DIL could make that referral themselves. Did the Doctor prescribe vitamins? He probably should have done so.

How is her development otherwise? Can she walk, play, talk, and run. Does she keep her food down when she eats or is she vomiting?

My little guy was barely on the growth chart a little over a year ago at 5% of typical. They said he was "failure to thrive". But he had many other things going on with his little body, too. The low weight was an issue with severe GI issues. He vomited numerous times a day. In his case, we changed his formula and got the vomiting under control. He is now in the 20th% of weight. He has been on multivitamins for over a year. The Docs sent us to a Nutritionist.

He is now almost 28 months old. His birthday is end of March a month older than your Gdaughter.

He, too, eats only a couple of bites than wants to throw things over the side of the highchair. At first, I thought he was finished. Then, I realized he was finished with "that" food! He wanted something else but didn't have the words to tell me. Now, I try a few other foods to see if he wants something else before I decide he is finished.

Sometimes, he wants me to do it. Just this morning for breakfast, he took 6 bits of cereal on his own then tried to throw the bowl over the side. I went over and tried to give him a few more bites. He eagerly ate the rest of the bowl. I could have easily decided he was finished with breakfast because he was throwing his food over the side.

You may suggest they see if she will take a few more bites if they do it.

Does the Doctor intend to follow-up with them? Is she on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly weight check? If the Doctor did not offer them more of a plan, they may to consider a different Doctor that will work with them on a team approach to helping her.

Good luck.

Bec

According to that chart, my DD is malnourished! She is 23 mo old, and after a week of illnesss she is 21 lbs, putting her off the chart (she was 24 which put her *barely* in the 10th), however, I can tell you the doctors - one friday one saturday - felt she was simply thin and in no danger. It is because her height is proportionate to her weight. You cannot look only at the weight when you look at those charts. I used to worry myself sick over my first DD, who at almost 6 is 38 lbs. But every doc I talked to about it said it was fine for her to be "just barely" on the chart or even off it for her age, because her height was within a 10% of her weight and both were slowly but consistently going up.

OneDayAtATime does have a good thought on the eating, tho. My 23 mo old still want to be fed sometimes, and she will push her dish away. I always check if she will take more with me feeding her first before taking the plate away.

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Angel, et al

My daughter is 2 1/2 years old and goes for monthly weigh-ins, since she is inderweight. She is 23 3/4 pounds. I get conflicting info from our doctor...don't worry about it, she's healthy, active and happy...please bring her in to get checked every month! So do I worry or not? From the moment she was born she's hated eating. She is mildly anemic, so I give her Centrum Junior multivitamin every day, as well as a tin of Pediasure once a day to fill in for any missing nutrients. She is growing, allbeit very slowly. Her sister who is 10 months old is almost the same weight!! A trick that worked the other day to get her to eat, was to bribe her with stickers. I can't believe I have to resort to this, but I do what I can to get her to eat.
Good luck!

My son just turned 3 last month and he was underweight. But he has always been underweight. And he is tall for his age. So it's not like he isnt growing. He eats everything I give him and the doctor tells me to give him more pastas, rice, peanut butter, and that is pretty much what I give him. I am actually not too worried about it because I have always been underweight.
So I think as long as she is healthy, playing and thriving, there should not be that much to worry about.

My son is 4.5 (will be 5 in Feb) and weighs 1/4 oz shy of 26 pounds. He quit eating and growing after his 3rd round of vaccines he received at the age of 7.5 months...up to that point, he was gaining and eating just fine. He refused to eat for several months, he would only nurse. He eventually begin to eat, but very little amounts, barely a bite here and there. We made him milkshakes using Boost, peanut butter, hazelnut butter (Nutella) and yogurt or ice cream. We continued to offer him a variety of foods, much of it going to waste, but as time went on, he would try more and more. He now eats much better, but there is still lots of room for improvement. We did go to the nutrionist, and that was a waste of time, said we were already doing everything she would have suggested. He was acting fine in every other way, plenty of energy, meeting developmental milestones, just slow to grow and little to no appetite. My MIL all but accused me of starving him, insinuated my milk was inadequate and some other various insults relating to not caring for my child. How is it that my milk was just fine for my first 3? And now my fifth baby is 11 months, still mostly nurses, and weighs almost 20 pounds. He's as chubby as can be, eats whatever we give him, and MIL made the comment that I must be eating better (well, something must be making my milk suddenly adequate to have such a chubby healthy baby)

I told her it makes quite a difference when you don't poison your child. My 4th child received several doses of vaccines that contained mercury in the first 6 months, more than any of my older children had received by the same age. They have since reduced/removed the mercury from the vaccines realizing that many children were getting way above the allowable levels. Too late for my son. And there is still the concern with the aluminum that is still in the vaccines.

My youngest is vaccine free. I refuse to watch him deteriorate before my eyes like I have with his brother.

The best advice I can offer is to just keep offering, and as long as she isn't displaying any unusual symptoms, she will probably pick up her appetite in time. I remember when my now 16 yr old was 2, he would only eat peanut butter on a spoon.

Christine