my 2 year old is not growing

[mattysr]

please help. my son is 2 years 6 months old and wont eat. he is 24lbs in weight and not even on the chart for his hight in his red growth book. in the last 6 months he has put on 1 and a half pounds on and grown 40mm. its my first child so could do with advice. the health visitor said he is doing well. me and the family dont think he is at all. the doctor just tells us to take him to hid health visitor but tey are failing him i think. we have tried everything to make him eat. still no joy tho. i dont know what to do next carnt afford to go private. could do with a second opinion. please help. thankyou

[carmen1]

my daughter was the same i put out snacks all the time and she picks at them she is quite small compared to other kids her age and is very petite, she doesnt eat a lot, try and experiment with food and see what happens if that fails take him to the gp and explain whats going on

[Iggle Piggle]

Hi Mattysr, the only thing I can say is he won't starve ! Have you changed food taste, type, texture?
If you find something he does eat, stick with it and make sure he drinks plenty.
Boys that age are dreadful eaters, bear with him, it will improve.

[firewatch]

hey, my little girl is almost two and a dammed fussy eater at times, to resolve this she comes in the kitchen whilst im cooking and she pics at a selection of veg raw on her own plate, she then eats them no probs once cooked (only exception is mushrooms). My hv said to me that it does a child no harm to miss one meal, they will eat when hungry and if they dont eat there tea to leave it a good hour hour and a half before offering them a snack.He will catch up hun, wait till he is 16 and looming over you!

[cazzz1975]

does he eat sweets?

[Kassee]

I was told many, many years ago, by a doctor that as long as they are fit and healthy, and not ill all the time, and as long as they are somewhere on the growth and weight chart then all is fine.

Kids grow in spurts, and their food intake varies, they will eat when hungry. Just keep offering healthy food and dont worry. The health visitor will keep an eye on his growth and weight.

But if he is ill all the time - then that is a different matter.

I had four children, all grown up now. One didn't eat, was very active and very thin, my mum worried me about his weight and told me to take him to the doctor because he eat hardly anything. And this (above) was my doctor's advice - dont listen to your mum. I never forgot it - and he was and still is a very healthy child. But now he is 35.

[ATTILADHUN]

does he drinks a lot of milk and snack in between meal. i found that toddler who frequently snack usually wont eat at meal times as his little tummy full quite quickly. if this is the case, you may want to reduce the amount of snack an hour before meal time. that might help.

[sheribee]

Hi, m daughter was the same, except we were refferred to paediatricians due to her lack of growth and fussy eating.
Basically this is what they told me.
Give high fat foods, which i kno sounds crazy but theysaid at her age it will NOT affect her heart health as she grows up as it will not become a normal diet for her throughout her life.
Litterally pure butter on sandwiches, add butter to mash, if you can add butter to it then do it. Burgers, chips, sausages (all fried) along with healthy snacks of course. Try the high fat nuts if he will eat them.
It ispurely to get excess calories into him that he wont burn off, honestly it wont harm him to eat these foods, i kno it does sound awful all fatty foods but that will put the weight on him.
Now my daughter is 8 years old. To keep the weight and height within normal range i had to do this till she went school, and then she had cooked school meals and cooked evening meals. Which she still has now.
So cook a meal at lunch and at tea for him, even if it is different to the rest of the family.
Cheese is really good, high fat,whole milk, chocolate. and see how you go.
How tall is he? and exactly what does he weigh, i will compare his chart on my daughters and see how similar they are. If he is less than her or the same then i would seriously push for a paed referal, as she was pretty little.

[mattysr]

thankyou for the advice. my son dosnt eat sweets at meal times we all sit together and eat we get him to help us make the meals and make it fun. which he enjoys. he weighs 24lb and is 83cm tall and is 2years 6 months old. he has 1 bottle of milk at night and juice in the day which he dosnt drink much of. the one positive is that he is not ill and runs about and is learning like any other child would. its nice to know that other familys are going through the same thing as we are. but if i just leave it and dont ask for advice i would be letting him down. i will keep my eye on him still and see what his gp and health visitor say. i will keep you posted. thankyou all very much. m

[starone]

How about those drinks they sell which are full of vitamins etc. Would that be any good?

[aims1202]

if he is running around and playing behaving as though he is happy then i wouldnt worry too much about the charts, just dont even check them. to help him with mealtimes, make sure you are feeling happy and relaxed, put food out on table for everyone to choose what they want, dont say anything to him about the food, just talk about other things, a happy atmosphere with no pressure to eat, let him play with it if he wants, make a mess with it and have fun, do it with yours, we did things like squirting cherry tomatoes and popping peas into your mouth between fingers, at the end if he hasnt eaten just say nothing and have pudding same way. eventually he will start to try things in his own time and probably dont make a big deal when he does eat. If he has squash in the day its probably best to have just water as sugar stops them feeling hungry. hope this helps

[boxtops]

My OH was tiny (compared with his siblings) until he was 14, when he just grew. Don't force it. Trying to make him eat will make it an issue in future years. If he's well and happy, just be glad for that, he'll grow if he's meant to.

[mattysr]

tankyou for all your comments my mind is at ease now. he is happy and well running round like a mad man. lol. thanks. m

[alid5]

My first child didn't grow very much and was very skinny as a toddler, he is now a well built man and towers above me at 6' 5". Don't worry kids will eat when they are hungry, glad to here he is happy and runs about like a mad man, sounds as if you are doing everything right, enjoy.

[Rose-wine]

My son was tiny, always looked undernourished when a child, he is now a 6ft 4 strapping lad.