Our bodies are magnificent machines. They are designed for survival. So, regardless of what is eye appealing to our society or culture. I have found it is best to offer the most healthy nutritional meal you can and let the child regulate the amount. I have two children ages 3 & 4. They were both smaller at birth. My oldest is adopted and thus no genetic component involved. I give them well balanced meals and they eat. I don't force it or make them eat any certain amount of thing, but what I do not do is feed them in between meals or increase their snack sizes. They get breakfast at 7:00am, snack @ 9:00am, lunch @11:30am, snack @2:30am, supper @7:00pm. Their snacks are about 10 grapes, basically a palm full. (ie...20 goldfish crackers) From this they learn to eat what they are given and that if they do not like something, then they decide to grin & bear it and eat it, or not and be hungry. They are both very healthy and fit. Both my kids are what people would call thin or small for their ages, but I was that way as well and with the obesity problem we are having with children these days, I am working hard to establish smart eating habits while they are young rather than fit them into a chart. As infants both ate differently. Daughter ate every 4 hours and took four ounces from about 2 months till she was 12 months. She ate like clock work 6am,10am,2pm,6pm,10pm,2am this is 24 ounces. She dropped the 2 am feeding around 6 mths so took in only 20 ounces, but we added little amounts of table. Once we changed to cow's milk, she stopped the bottle and so I lost track of her intake amounts, but just made sure to keep healthy foods handy. My son ate basically 2 ounces every 2-3 hours till he was 4 months old!!!! Then he started to take in more, but he was taking in about 24-32 ounces a day & Dr. told me 32 was too much. But in the end they are both healthy and now daughter eats hardly no breakfast, a medium lunch and a huge supper while son eats a huge breakfast and a medium lunch and hardly no supper. Just remember that infants and small children still listen to their bodies signals when to stop unlike us adults where we were taaught to finish what you get and tend to eat to taste rather than survival. I hope this helps you not to worry to much about the "fat" layer your little one has. Just let her be her and enjoy. My son will be 4 in May and he weighs 24 lbs and is 36" tall. My daughter will be 5 in Feb. and she weighs 36 lbs and is 39" tall. They are both in prek half days and are doing fine. They rarely are sick and seem to be thriving. They just are what they are.