teeny kids and teeny appetites.

SparkPoints: (7,206)
Fitness Minutes: (7,075)
Posts: 694
12/3/12 4:13 P

My dd is 12 years old and has always weighed less than average. If you look at the growth chart over time you would see that she gained weight and height at a normal steady rate along the same line just at the lowest percentile for weight. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her. She is just smaller than the average.

I've never fed her a bunch of unhealthy fats or sweets to try to get her to become average. I think that is poor advice and you are right to ignore it.

We do not give dd low fat or fat free versions of products. She gets regular milk and cheeses.
I pretty much let her eat when she is hungry and offer a variety of foods.

She likes fruit, cheese, crackers, granola bars, yogurt, chicken or turkey, eggs, some beans, peanut butter on crackers, pbj, bean and cheese burritos, cereal, mac and cheese, fish, oatmeal, meatballs, hamburgers, cottage cheese, pizza, quesadillas, Carnation Instant Breakfast, fruit and yogurt smoothies, mashed potatoes, ham, pork chops, eggrolls, gyros and pasta. She prefers egg whites only. She doesn't eat every kind of meat in every form.

If your your children will only eat small amounts maybe they would do better with several snack sized meals. When my dd was younger it seemed to help her feel less overwhelmed to see less food at once. I would always give her more if she was still hungry.

We have a cookbook called Good Food for Kids by Dr. Penny Stanway and dd enjoyed many recipes from that book. It has information on meal planning and what portion sizes should be for different ages as well which might be helpful.

www.cookbookvillage.com/products/good-food
-for-kids-cookbook-dr-penny-stanway
www.amazon.com/Good-Food-Kids-Penny-Stanwa
y/dp/0600608824/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=
UTF8&qid=1354568581&sr=1-1&keywords=go
od+food+for+kids

Pounds lost: 7.0

0 8 16 24

32

Posts: 2,699
12/3/12 11:47 A

Not all fat is bad, so I'd suggest adding in some fats for them. Perhaps make a cream cheese dip for fruit or add some peanut butter to their fruit for a snack/at a meal. Will they eat avocado? Add in dips for veggies, too. You can cut up fruit for the three of you, and give them the pb, you avoid it, and you can all eat the same. Also, if your doctor is concerned, ask for a referral to a pediatric dietician. If your doctor's not concerned, then I wouldn't push the issue too much. Kids do go through phases with their eating as well as with their size. I can always tell when my 11 year old is getting ready to grow because he pants all seem a bit tight in the waist and she (almost) has a "belly". 3 weeks later, everything is too short! It's like her body stores the extra energy because it knows what's coming. If your daughters aren't malnutritioned or considered failure to thrive, it will likely all even out in the long run. Is their weight tracking their height or is that wildly out of proportion? Perhaps they're just destined to be petitte little things. My 3-months-shy-of-her-4th-birthday daughter is about 32 pounds. I think she weighed 30 at her well visit last year! She's not 5th percentile small, but she's small. I wouldn't push too hard just because it often has the opposite effect. Continue to offer healthy meals. Add fats where you can.

You might also try encouraging them to participate in the meal planning and cooking (not sure of their age). Let them pick a meal, have them help you prepare it. That will give them some "ownership", and perhaps they'll be more likely to eat something the made. I konw it's frustrating with all the info out there and contradicts and school meals being not the best, but hang in there!

current weight: 127.2

165 152.5 140 127.5

115

SparkPoints: (6,482)
Fitness Minutes: (1,682)
Posts: 184
12/3/12 11:26 A

My kids aren't even in school yet... but i have been building up a need to vent for a bit now. have you heard about the stuff they want to feed our kids for lunch? apparently they're supposed to be healthy.. but calorie wise it's as minimal as possible. i do understand that obesity is an epidemic in the USA (i'm obese myself, and working diligently to change that.)
my girls are under weight.. and i'm just dismayed. i think i'll be packing lunches if my kids stay as petite as they are now.
but this vent doesn't even have much to do with the school lunches. i'm just annoyed at the concept of a mom trying to get tips on healthy kids.. and is automatically flooded with stuff about cutting calories and watching your child's weight at well check ups. but when you add the word ''underweight'' to google search.... my goodness the stupidity of the results you will get. people telling you to add butter, sugar, sweets.. to every meal. where in the world is the good stuff?
my daughters are JUST getting their weight stabilized.. they were little chunkers at 9 months old.. then drastically changed to underweight at around 18 months and stayed that way until recently. they're twins.. and my oldest is still considered underweight.. only in the 5th percentile for her height. my youngest is finally considered average.
i often fantasize about finding the perfect website... for mom's like me who prepared for having heavy kids who LOVE to eat, like their mother.. but ended up with kids who find it more of a chore to eat lunch than cleaning up their room. it's getting better. they still hate lunch.. but eat breakfast and dinner.. and even snack at night. so far the only good advice i've gotten is milkshakes, smoothies, and protein protein protein. i need some high calorie, but still healthy stuff to make for snacks and meals... i try to stuff as much protein in a day that i can comfortably... even though they aren't really fond of eggs or meat.. i try to be as pushy as i can about eating them when i serve them.. they generally have no problem eating the vegetables.. so i'm the opposite of the typical mom. pushing the kids to eat meat instead of vegetables and i have to sit with them and feed them for them to get any real amount of food... but they do tell me when they're full and i don't push it past that point.
frustrating! i'm searching for low calorie stuff for me and high calorie stuff for the kids.. and still trying to be healthy!

Pounds lost: 48.8

0 26.25 52.5 78.75

105