Underweight 3-Year Old

Talk to the pediatrician and becareful. Once you start feeding the high fat foods it is hard to cut them back or out and you don't want straight fat anyway. If need be find a nutricionist. They could help you with healthy ideas to help him gain some weight.

My almost 4 year old weighs only 30lbs and the doctor said he is fine. I used to worry about him but I think he is just like he dad. My husband is tall and thin. Always has been and will be. As long as he is not losing wegiht I dont think you should do anything. Just be happy he is not over weight

my son was recently tested to see why he hasn't gained. and has been having chronic diarrhea. He has went from 76% to 5% from 4 mths to now...19 mths old.

turns out he is IgA deficient His IgA is 20 and normal is 24-121 range.

You may want to get your little one tested. there are reasons that can cause their bodies to be underweight. Celiac disease can cause it too. I still don't know much about IgA and Celiac...but even if they aren't officially Celaic...they can still have sensitivities to wheat, rice, oats, barley, spelt, or kamut. or even other things such as milk or other foods.

Our son is six years old and we were advised to get our son to gain weight by both the pediatrician and his psychiatrist (he has ADHD). They both agreed that with young kids, any fat is good fat. We had to go counterintuitive and feed him high-fat foods! It wasn't easy because we're very much a Cooking Light household. We still push the healthy foods, but our focus is on the weight gain and that requires high calories -- chips, ice cream, cookies, bacon.

An easy one that's actually healthy, too, are the generic Slim-Fast drinks. For kids, these are high calorie (230 calories each) and they're full of vitamins. The generics were NOT involved in the recall and Costco sells a great-tasting chocolate one our son loves. Our son hates to eat, but these are a guarantee that he'll consume.

Also, has the pediatrician expressed any concern? If not, then your son is probably doing just fine. In our experience, they're quite vocal when you need to push the weight gain. I wouldn't go to any extremes with diet changes until you talk to the doctor about whether it's even necessary.

Pediasure works well, ask your ped if adding pediasure to their diet might help.

If he is eating a well balanced diet and is healthy what is the problem? My girls weren't even 20 pounds at 2. Right now I have a 14 year old at 115# and a 12 year old at almost 80#. I too was very skinny until I started having kids now I am cnsidered obese.
If you make a point of eating healthy the children will emulate that and not have eating disorders. I dont' care how big or little my kids are, they are all actve in sports, eat a balanced diet with minimal sweets and no soda.

Hi A.,

If he's active, energetic and healthy, there is probably nothing wrong with his weight, it's just the way he's built. Remember that the growth curves (both weight and height) were created using American white children in the 50's, and they don't necessarily apply to other cultures, or even today's children that well. They're still a guide, but let them be. My son, 7, is on the 80th percentile in height, yet 20% percentile in weight. He's perfectly healthy, and I wish I had even half of his energy!

If you make your son eat more than his body is asking for, you are teaching him to ignore the fullness signals, and you are increasing the chances that he will be overweight as an adult, with all the health issues that can come from it. So unless there is a sign that he's not eating enough for his needs (sluggishness, paleness, apathy, etc. - your Dr can tell you the signs to look for) there is no need to worry about how he fits on the growth curves.

A., my middle child, a 4 year old, weighs 23 pounds. She started off right around the 5th percentile on the growth curve and gradually slid off the bottom of the chart.

If your son eats and is growing, I personally would just keep giving him food when he is hungry and roll with things. My older daughter rides between 10 and 5 percentile and my son between 10 and 15. No 2 kids are the same. If he is otherwise healthy then I think he should be fine.

My little guy (2 1/2) is also in the 1st percentile. Finally!!! He was always under the scale completely. He is a totally healthy, happy, and active boy. He happens to be a really healthy eater too. Choosing brocolli over a cookie or carrots over ice cream. This does not bother us as we want him to have healthy eating habits and not be all hopped up on sugar all day. I do wish he would enjoy some ice cream sometimes though. 8)

To ensure that he gets some extra calories daily our pediatrician suggested that we add 1/3 half and half to his whole milk. I also mix half a packet of Vanilla Carnation Breakfast drink to his morning milk and his lunchtime cup of milk. I split the packet up because my son doesn't love things to be too sweet. One packet of Carnation breakast drink mixed with 1 cup of fat free milk is 230 calories!! So I know that even though I am splitting the packet his is still getting a lot of calories especially with the half and half added to his milk.

My son loves making smoothies with me and I have begun adding full fat Greek yogurt to the mix as well as a Carnation mix every once in a while. I have also slipped some avacado in there without him noticing. It tasted delicious and he even asked for more.

I have not changed his diet too much though. I just make sure that I use a little bit more butter on his food and I try to sneak in more snacks when I can.

Here is a link that will give you more ideas for high calorie foods for toddlers. http://www.framinghampediatrics.com/High%20Calorie%20Food...

I hope this helps. And don't worry too much. If your child is healthy and active and not lethargic and cranky all the time I am sure he is just fine. And of course if you still are worried let your pediatrician know.

Good luck.

Peace & Smiles,
J.

Hi A. - I agree with Claudia's answer below about incorporating healthy fats like avocado. You can also add some extra virgin olive oil to his veggies, potatoes, etc. for some healthy extra calories. But, since everybody in your family is on the thin side, you probably shouldn't stress too much. As long as you know that he is eating a well-balanced diet full of fruits, veggies, & whole grains, has enough energy to play all day, and sleeps well at night, I am sure he is fine.

sure the Dr. says don't worry. and in general, you don't have to.. but who knows if this scenario is important.
It can't hurt to try a little something healthy and dense in good calories
In my case, I focused on the highest fat yogurts, and made trays of homemade granola bars for my skinny son (with oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, honey, raisins, dark chocolate chips, etc. )
At one point the granola bar was the only thing he would eat.
I also made grilled cheese in a frying pan with butter... using a double protein bread(I found "Arnold" brand in the grocery store) or other high protein/high fiber multigrain
breads.
I can't say for sure that my efforts explain why he's back over the 25th percentile. But it had to help. Good Luck!

Is his doctor suggesting any dietary interventions? I'm sure if your son needed that, the doctor would suggest it. You might try ensure (pediasure I guess is the kid kind), that's just extra calories and protein. I'd also make sure that he isn't consuming any empty calories that will just fill him up without any real nutrition, like typical snack foods, juice or soda.

Don't worry, those percentiles are just numbers.

My daughter was quite a bit older when she was hospitalized for being underweight. They gave her all the almonds that she wanted to eat. They gave her pop tarts for breakfast each day. I don't say they are good for anyone but that is what they gave. Is your MD concerned? If not, don't you worry yourself. When they fall off the chart they find the problem. Mine went on a feeding tube til they found she had a gag reflux problem. She spit up so often we and we had been told so many times that it was normal I spotted mentioning it to the MD. Don't do that if you see a trend, oddity keep telling some things are important at one age that are not at another.
Today she is in college and loving it.
God bless you with wisdom

My son as a preschooler and preteen was always touted as too skinny, and I was subject to many insensitive and downright ignorant remarks by people. His grandmother would tell me to "feed that boy" Well guess what? he was made to be tall and thin at 15 yrs, 5ft11" and 130 #. He eats like a horse. I just kept high cal yogurts, bolthouse farms pure fruit smoothies, cheese sticks, choc boost, peanut butter, scrambled eggs, chicken, cottage cheese, waffles with syrup!, etc and a multivit. He likes those meal bars metlife choc, and choc chip, and pretzel one. Hard boiled eggs, sometimes tuna fish (I dyed it blue)! He likes odawalla bars too. Try carrot muffins too good recipe at Food network.com

Try not to worry about this. Some kids are just small and if he has genes to be little then this is not surprising. The main thing is that he is otherwise healthy, continues to grow along his curve and has plenty of energy.
My younger daughter has never been above the 1st percentile since she was born. She is almost 5 and only weighs a couple of pounds more than your son! But she has continued along the same curve all her life so this is normal growth. Her older sister is must taller and heavier but it is just how they are.
Obviously you want to make sure he eats a healthy balanced diet, but children need to learn to pay attention to their own bodies as to how much they should be eating, so if you try to stuff him full of high calorie foods you may not be helping him with this. You may also decrease his appetite for other things he should be eating e.g. fruits and vegetables.
I spent a lot of time worrying about my daughter when she was younger and I really feel now that it was a waste of time - some kids are smaller than others, and it's normal.

my daughter weighed 27 pounds at 3 . she was 5% for weight and 75% for height... so she looks so skinny cause seh is so tall.

we kept her on whole milk until she was 4 adn fed her whatever she would eat... but she eats like a bird..

My son wasn't quite in that low a percentile, but he's always been on the skinny side. (4 1/2 and is weighing 35lbs now).

Good fats like avocados, cheese (try goat cheese or sheep cheese, yum!) Organic whole milk (again try goat milk), eggs, almonds.

Make sure he is snacking healthy too... carrots, apples, bananas. I also do quite a bit of baking but using good healthy and unprocessed ingredients. (banana bread muffins, carrot cake, choc chip cookies)

Also, I would recommend a GOOD children's multi-vitamin!

First: Is the doctor worried?

Second: All kids are different - even in the family.

Third: I would focus on giving your child a well-balanced, healthy diet of fruits, veggies, grains, etc. Think of the pyramid. Or, contact a nutritionist.

If you pursue a high-calorie diet, you could end up on the other side of the scale and also have a child with bad eating habits later in life.

Updated

First: Is the doctor worried?

Second: All kids are different - even in the family.

Third: I would focus on giving your child a well-balanced, healthy diet of fruits, veggies, grains, etc. Think of the pyramid. Or, contact a nutritionist.

I do recommend having him further tested by an internist for any issues, to be safe.

If you pursue a high-calorie diet, you could end up on the other side of the scale and also have a child with bad eating habits later in life.