Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school feeding light eaters

Thanks HK. I have to agree with your points, particularly:



The book I linked to earlier, "My Child Won't Eat!", makes a similar argument about how we, as an affluent society, have distorted satiety awareness and risk imprinting it on our children through loving coercion.

In our family, we're fortunate to have seen two paediatricians, one with a feeding specialist on staff, both of whom have ZERO problem with DS being < 1%ile weight for height. He's always tracked > 95%ile for height and > 75th%ile for head circumference but hasn't really filled out. I was somewhat reassured when I learned that my parents and I were similarly thin as children.

I still get antsy when I see my DS compared to his age peers. They are so...robust...and he looks like a wiry sprite by comparison, always running from experiment to experiment of his at Mach 2. But, when other children aren't around for comparison, DS never seems thin, just streamlined, YKWIM?

This thread reassures me that, maybe, our little professors just have a different set of needs than most children.

Unless your kid is losing weight or malnourished, I wouldn't sweat it too much. All three of mine are fairly light. My eldest is the "hefty" one. She has had a voracious appetite since day one, and would eat until she puked when she was an infant (I learned when to stop feeding to avoid the vomit). She always ate a good variety of foods. She was 19 lbs at a year old. She is now 17, 5'4" and 105.

Middle kid was a picky eater until about age 8. She now eats a normal amount and a good variety of foods. We kept getting those "your kid is underweight" letters from school until a couple of years ago. At a year old, she was 18 lbs. She is now 15, is 5'4" and is almost 100 lbs.

Youngest was heaviest of the three at birth - 7lbs, 10 oz - but lightest at a year - 16 lbs. Some days she eats a fair amount, other days she doesn't eat that much. While the quantity has improved with time, the quality/variety of foods has not. Doctors told us we should not feed her veggies or fruits when she was an infant since she had poor weight gain. She doesn't eat many veggies or fruits now (at age 8). She eats a lot of meat, pasta and dairy. You would think the kid would be chunky, but she is 1st percentile BMI (weighs 41 lbs).

So, as Howler said, don't worry too much. My youngest was deemed "failure to thrive", but the doctors could not find anything wrong with her. She was on a very high dose of steroids for several months when she was an infant, and that can have temporary effects on growth (as long as until around age 10), but I think her growth/weight gain is very similar to middle kid. We're not stressed about it. We have plenty of stuff to stress us - right now waiting for college decisions for the eldest (and financial aid!).

This is kinda what I'm hearing everywhere. "Don't worry unless the kid is unhealthy" "Oh, they are?" "Um, don't worry anyway."

We've had pretty good luck avoiding what was looking like a pretty scary situation for a bit, and I kinda think that's a good thing...

I know when we realized that he'd gotten to the point where he was unable to eat more than a couple of bites at a time because he just had'nt been eating more ever... I got a bit scared, genuinely scared.

We're lucky about no allergies here. I have severe allergies, so this is almost too good to be true There MAY be other physical reasons why he eats so little, but I suspect they're just exascerbating the situation, and are not main causes, even if they're there. In any case, both issues have been looked at and specialists are "pretty certain" they aren't causing pain...

I, personally, really wish the varieties of allergic experience were better understood publicly. I've been refused service in restaurants one too many times when I was just trying to sort out what I could eat. I now no longer ask, most of the time, wich is risky for me.

Also, in line with HK's let them get hungry suggestion: we only do 2 meals a day, snacks when requested only, usually once, and sometimes we get an actual lunch out of it. I get in a lot of trouble for that, because here the recommendation is 3 meals and 4 snacks. The 1 yr old needs to eat about that often, though, which complicates things! Ah well.

And we're working on expanding the dinner sitting (which is never distracted, and is always everyone at the table, talking and eating) to five minutes.

Though, at times I think we should just stop trying to do a sit-down dinner. It really is NOT fun for anyone right now. Though they like the religious parts.

I am very much in agreement with HK. I did have a very thin (failure to thrive) baby(no one knows why). He is still thin, but fine now. I periodically fuss about it a little, but mainly because I worry that there is "something" else we're missing health-wise.

If the child is in serious trouble, you should see a feeding therapist. Feeding problems do exist and can be scary.

That's good to hear I hope you're right. I tend to err on the side of caution, sometimes when it's not even warranted... (hmm, I think the anxiety counselor called that catastrophizing? lol).

Thanks


Same with my DD10 - she was less than 20 at 12 months. In fact, she was the last kid in her class to graduate from a full car seat to a booster (I think the law here is 40 lbs - I can't remember now) and holy SMOKES was that an issue (for her... she was maaaad).

I also agree with you about the plump factor - I think North American society is normalizing excess weight (i.e. obese is now the new overweight, and overweight is now the new normal).

I've had comments about DD10 when she was younger... "oh she's so thin." DH and I were both very skinny when we were young, so part of it is genetics and part of it is her food sensory issues.

No significant food intolerances at this point (phew) although she is reactive to pollen, grass, trees and cats (eyes swell shut, hives everywhere, eyes and nose start running, gets a long lasting cough and chest congestion, sometimes wheezy, chest pain...) sigh. It broke my heart recently... we may have discovered a food sensitivity: she LOVES avocados (so healthy!!) but I won't let her eat them anymore because whenever she does now her tongue gets really itchy. That makes me a bit nervous.

Anyway, they're BOTH scrawny (DD AND DS). Their height is normal though. Scrawny & fussy...

That was me 5'5" I think, but close enough. I used to get lots of comments "you need to eat more." (sigh)

I finally went to my doctor (because of all the comments)... I think I was about 22 at the time... still 105 lbs. I asked him if I needed to gain weight. He smiled, looked me right in the eye, and said "You are extremely healthy. Your weight is just right for your body type, so don't worry about it."

She may have oral allergy syndrome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome

I have had this as long as I can remember (to the ragweed foods listed). It has never amounted to anything. Believe it or not, I never mentioned it to my parents. It seems it can sometimes be of some concern, so I don't mean to blow if off. Just thought I would mention.

Anytime! I would hate for you to be operating under false constraints. Especially when protein is so delicious.

Everytime my eldest visits with friends the parents report how little she eats. It's hard not to reply "um, your child is obese, mine is thin but she's not even close to medically underweight. Have you considered rephrasing that comment to 'so that's what normal intake looks like!'".

She was a nightmare to feed as a baby & toddler, very difficult though to 8yrs old. Once we put her on an elimination diet and removed all the foods she'd always hated (as HK says - they know) she has been easier to feed. It's far from perfect but she eats protien, produce and quality fats everyday, generally at every meal. And she doesn't eat to excess ever...