why doesnt he grow????

melnel wrote: Has anyone else had this happen? It just seems to be one thing after another. Reflux, slow weight gain, losing weight, lazy feeding, diarrhea with mucus, choking episodes... He now has been diagnosed with lactose intolerance, still to be confirmed whether it is primary or secondary. He is a happy wee lad but just doesnt seem to be growing well. I feel like I am failing him.

Hi melnel.

My word, this sounds EXACTLY like Jackson. To a tee. Only Jackson hasn't been diagnosed with anything. He's never been interested in feeding and to this day isn't. I am sure he would happily go hungry if we didn't put him in his chair several times a day. He eats almost nothing.

At one year, he's still a 3rd percentile baby. Getting weight on him has been hard.

I don't have any answers for you, but wanted to say that despited this, Jackson loves life, is smart and energetic and incredibly happy. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be a reason, and I am hoping Jackson grows out of it as he gets older.

You're not alone. It's very frustrating and I know how you feel.

*hand up*
I have a 3rd %ile baby
In fact, Hannah's exactly the same as your wee Jake.
She was 6kg exactly and 61cm at 5 months. Her head has consistenly tracked along the 50th %ile line since birth, too

She's now just over 9kg and 75cms long (at 19 months).

Plunket have always been a little on my case about her weight, but my latest Plunket nurse has been great.

At the end of the day, if he's happy, active and reaching milestones, he's fine. Just doomed to have to spend his life having jeans/trousers taken up

My favourite thing about having a small child is that her clothes last ages and I can still carry her without breaking an arm

They probably measured wrong at one of the appointments.

Spencer was always a third percentile baby and is still for weight and head size, he has now fallen right off the bottom of the chart for length though and we are going down the testing route. His growth hormone was checked back in march along with testing for coeliacs and gluten intolerance, thyroid, iron and something else I think. Growth hormone was just ok and gluten slightly higher than they like, he's already allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts though so god knows what i will feed him if he ends up gluten free as well

For us the weight thing has never been an issue cos although he was little he was always a fatty, just his height that is the issue here.

But before you panic we had the allergy paed measure him in March as 77cm, then 3 weeks later the developmental paed measured him as 81.5, then 3 months later plunket measure him as 81 and then last week plunket measured him as 80. So the measuring is hardly accurate and I would personally wait until he has been measured a few more times.

Basically our docs (and that includes the paed so not just GP advice) are wanting just to monitor at the moment with looking at retesting the growth hormone thing soon so I expect your GP for now will just want you to get him measured more often than most bubbas or he might refer you to paed to be on the safe side.

Try not to worry for now and you aren't failing him, you would only be failing him if you showed no concern about it.

Maya was a 3rd %er too, altho in her case it was worrying as she started life on the 97th, gradually started dropping back then at 8-9 months took a huuuuge dive back and ended up being admitted to hospital. Hers was all allergy related.

Have you seen a paed with Jake? Might be worth it, if for nothing else than your own peace of mind. The fact that he is in proportion is reassuring (Maya was (97th for height, 3rd for weight), but with the reflux, choking episodes etc. it might be worth just getting him checked over and having someone qualified to bounce ideas off.

Maya is now 6 1/2 (eek!) and still on the 97th for height but hanging out around the 50th for her weight and has been for years now.

Yeah emma we saw a paed re weight, choking and reflux when he was 3 months. He wasnt worried about weight, treated the reflux and ruled out any throat obstruction for the choking. I would imagine my gp will refer us back after seeing the letter from plunket.

i am not so worried about what percantile he is in, more that it as dropped so drastically. At birth his lenth was on the 85th percantile, 3 months the 50th and 5 months the 3rd.

Marissa you are probably right, they didnt measure him properly...

He seems to love rice cereal though He cries when we stop giving it to him!