3 year old weight and height - worry?

[DaisyBee]

So after responding to threads about eating, not force feeding, not having power struggles over food, etc. Im thinking I'm not the person to be giving advice on eating. Ive always been very relaxed about food, never worried, never pushed her to eat. We eat meals together. She is offered a variety. Megan turned 3 in December and has lost weight. We have a scale at home and she steps on once in a while. She was weighing 29 lbs for a while. 29.2 was the most. She now weighs 28 lbs exactly. So she has lost a whole pound. This seems like a lot to me at her age. She hasn't been sick either. And we are outside less right now with the weather, so she is getting less physical activity than normal. Her pajama pants that are supposed to be more like leggings sag on her and almost fall off if she isnt wearing a diaper and dh and I talked about how she looks so skinny lately.

Megan is over 38" long. Almost 38 1/2". She now weighs 28 lbs. (almost 98 cm and 12.7 kg.)

I've done a growth chart online and it shows she is 25% for weight and 75% for height. So that doesn't seem bad at all. But when I do a weight for stature one it says she is below the 5th %. No wonder she looks so skinny, she is! https://medcalc.com/growth/chart.php. https://medcalc.com/growth/. ( I'm not sure the first link is working... It's just the weight for stature chart that you can find if you click on the 2nd link you can do it)

Should I be concerned? Should I be offering different foods? More fat in her diet? Or not worry about it? She has been getting picky with food lately, and doesnt have a big appetite. She has a well child visit in 1 1/2 weeks. But her pediatrician has always thought it's better for kids to be too skinny than too big. So I have a feeling she won't be much help.

What are your 3 year olds weight and height?

 

[tommyg]

I would speak with your pediatrian (spelling) I take it she is still on full fat milk and yougarts etc. She's not completely off the scale of normal if you ask me think about it if she is of slender build then she maybe isn't as skinny as you think. Where a broader child of the same height might be closer to the same centile for height as weight.

She could also have taken a big growth spurt that could mean that she's burnt up a lot of energy doing that. My HV commented before DS was 13 weeks that as odd as it might seem LO's can loose weight when they grow.

 

[suzib76]

Lana is just 3 and I weighed her the other day just so in could do a comparison with what I had lost. She weighs 32lbs

 

[xnewxmummyx]

I'm the opposite with my DD, she isn't, even 2 and weighs roughly 34lbs and is tall.. I got a hospital appt for her next week

Just shows they are all different and we worry whether they are big or small xx

 

[CaptainMummy]

I just did the thing for Paige, and her weight for stature (allbeit she wont be 2 for 5 days) puts her exactly on the 5th line too. She is below the 50th for weight and just below 91st for height. Her HC is above the top line..

She eats pretty well and is very healthy. She does look rather skinny sometimes but still has a pot belly alot so not alot of pople see how skinny she actually is. Her leggings etc fall down too if shes not wearing a nappy, although shes not potty trained so dont need to worry about that!

I think some toddlers/children are just built that way. All shapes and sizes.. My 2 brothers were always the tallest and skinniest in their class.. So it may just be what her body shape is. If you are worries about it, and she doesnt seem to eat very well then yes, i would speam to someone and express your worries, but I wouldnt worry just from what the chart says =)

 

[mummy_ellie09]

Not sure of his height - haven't been in a long time - but Josh weighs 37lb exactly

 

[chell5544]

Have you used a online BMI checker for children I too was worrying about DD1 because she looks so skinny she is 4 in a couple of weeks is 110cm tall and only weighs 2st 8. (3ft.5inches, 36lb) but her BMI is 15.1 which is healthy.
I worry with DD1 because I know her protien intake is low due to being a picky eater

 

[DaisyBee]

I just did a bmi And it says her bmi is 13.4 and that is below the 1st percentile for girls age 3 yrs 1 month. It says she is underweight and should see a health care professional. That is shocking! I was thinking she was getting skinny, but below the 1st %?!

She isn't on full fat milk, etc. I was told to put her on 1% or skim at her 24 month appt. ( she has 1%) She has always been very lean and a taller child. This is the shortest percentile she has been in a long time. She was 85-90% height for a long time. So her growth has slowed.

I think i will put her on full fat milk again. Any other ideas?

https://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/. This is the bmi calculator I used.

 

[alicecooper]

I haven't measured him for a while, but when Jason was 2 years 9 months old, he was :

2 stone 5lbs 4oz (33lbs 4oz)

and

3 foot 2 inches

he'll be more than that now. That was 6 months ago.

 

[rosie272]

Charlie actually lost weight around his 3rd birthday last year, his clothes starting hanging off him but his diet hadn't changed - I put it down to a growth spurt. At the moment he's 14 kilos and 104 cm (41 inches) tall.. if I were you I'd keep Megan on full fat dairy and maybe have a word with your paediatrician to put your mind at rest.

 

[Natsku]

I'd put her back on full fat dairy and talk to her paed. Could just be a growth spurt though.

 

[Seity]

It may just be a growth spurt. My LO is tall and skinny and doesn't like to eat, but he hasn't lost weight, but he hasn't really gained either. He's just over 3 ft and weighs 27 lbs. He has only ever had whole fat milk because low fat and skim milk just aren't healthy.

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom is 28lbs (20th centile) and 96cm (50th centile for boys). He is extremely fussy with food but all the children on my side are very skinny till puberty and DH is very slim so it's just his build.

I'd def get more fat in - full fat yoghurt, milk etc, nut butters if nuts are ok etc and speak to a doctor if you're still worried.

 

[eddjanuary10]

Ihsan was looking a bit slim recently because he took a bit of a stretch. He has filled out again and is currently around 35lbs and 3ft 3inches tall. I have read that at 3years girls and boys are often around the same height but girls can weigh a bit less. My niece is very slim & tall and my sis had her weighed at the doctor recently, some people thought she may be underweight but she wasn't she is just over 2.5years but looks tiny next to my son yet they are both within healthy norms! It would probably help to put your little girl back on full fat milk, so long as she isn't drinking it in excess or in place of foods it won't do any harm. My son drinks whole milk every day (2 small glasses) and he isn't overweight or anything and he also has cheese & full fat yogurts etc. If your worried could you speak to a different paed that doesn't share the skinnier is better than bigger view? There's nothing wrong with giving full fat if your child is eating a balanced diet & getting exercise. xxx

 

[cutie4evr01]

Christina is just about 39" and 31 lb at last check (her 3-yr appt is next week so we'll have the official recording then). I think this puts her on the slightly tall and slightly thin side of the curve, but well within normal.

My friend's 2-yr-old is very tiny (short and also very underweight). Her doctor recommended they add butter and cream to the dishes they cook. However, our friends are very health conscious, so I think they only do that part of the time and often encourage her to eat healthy fats, such as avocado.

 

[sun]

My son hardly eats and he has weighed the same for the past year. He is around 34-3lbs, but quite tall - over 40" when we last checked.

 

[XcupcakeX]

Lola is about 34 lb. she's tall and looks about right.

 

[RachA]

I've just done the BMI calc for Esther and it says she is obese!!! Given that she is 3 and still wearing 18-24 months and some 2-3year clothes plus the fact that she is unable to wear leggings of any age but 18-24mths due to them falling straight off her, i'm unsure how they get her to be obese. She is so skinny it's unbelievable to i struggle to see how she can be classed as obese.


Anyhow, when she was last weighed/measured she was 2ft 8 1/4 inches and weighed around 27pounds. She was just over 3 years at the time.

 

[polaris]

Thomas comes up as underweight on that BMI calculator too (1st percentile). I weighed and measured him when he was three and he was 100 cm. and 30.5 lbs. I'm not sure what he is now but I think he has actually put on some weight - I'll weigh him again tomorrow.

However from birth he has been around 25th percentile for weight and about 75th percentile for height and that is still roughly where he is at. He is tall and skinny. OH was exactly the same as a child.

When Thomas was actually underweight when he was sick, he went down to 9th percentile for weight. We were seeing a dietician at that time. She was totally satisfied when we got his weight back up to 25th percentile because she said that was just his natural build.

I do think Thomas is skinny and I think that it has negative effects in that he can't afford to lose any weight if he's not well and it tends to take him longer to get over illnesses. I have gone through stages of worrying a lot about his weight. But at the moment I think he looks healthy and he has plenty of energy so I'm not worried about him to be honest. I tend to agree with your paediatrician to some extent in that, in this society, our children are on average much more likely to suffer from illnesses related to obesity than to malnutrition. However I think you should trust your instincts as to whether you think there is a problem - I would go more on how Megan looks and how she is in herself, rather than on what a chart says. I'm not saying ignore it, but all children are different and somebody has to be in the lower percentiles just as somebody has to be in the higher percentiles.

 

[OmarsMum]

Omar is 16 kgs 97-98 cms. He's average? He's not fat but he has a solid build, he has big bones, I guess the bones mass increases their weight? He has broad shoulders & wide chest, his arms & torso are long. He was a very big baby at the 98th percentile for weight & height, but his growth really slowed down from 14-15+ months.

My friend's daughter who's 6 months older than Omar is 13 kgs, 100 cms. She's skinny & tall. But she eats much better than Omar, she snacks all day, but she's always been thin.