Upset with 18mth weight

[winder]

My boy is 18mth plus but only wt 9.3 kg. Wt reduced after he's
having diahorea for 1 week. When he recover recently，
he refused most meat and ate v little porriage. Dunno how to
force him to eat.
And mum keep saying rice is difficult to digest for young child.
Me and hub still fed him rice thou. But maincaregiver is my mum
and she's giving him porriage most of the times. .
Am very upset that his wt gain is so slow.. ESP now that he's
refusing his food..

 

[camom]

It's normal that weight gain slows down after 1 yo. Actually, the more impt thing is ... is his growth constant and not moving up or down abruptly on the growth chart.

Is he drinking alot of milk?

 

[apollo]

I think it is time to introduce more varieties of foods to him. Rice, pasta, beehoon, mee sua, udon, mee tak mak. So many food that a 18mth old can eat. He cant be having ONLY porridge, he needs to learn to chew, to try out more foods if not he will become a fussy eater next time. As for slow weight gain, like camom said, after 1yo their weight gain will slow down. ds was 11.4kg at 9mth old but at 19mth old he he abt 12.8. only gain 1.4kg during these 10mths. and recently he fell ill and lose abt 2-300grams, it is normal.

 

[bringuplittleones]

My son was also about 9.5kg when he was 18 months, and now at 25 months he's still only 11.5kg. He's under the 25th percentile, but has always been since birth. I think the most impt thing is the pattern of his growth, i.e. not going from 75th percentile to 50th or 25th percentile that is impt.

I agree with prev post too. just porridge only for 18 months are too monotonous and also prob inadequate variety of nutrients and vitamins and minerals. Its time to introduce different texture too. Perhaps your mum is still a little old school in her bringing up of kids, just discuss with her ba. GL:tlaugh:

 

[diymummy]

My son was around 9kg+ at 18 mths as well. Now he is 25 mths he is 10.7kg

He needs more variety in his food. If your mum is afraid that rice is "difficult to digest", she can cook mushy rice or cook rice in some stock/soup.

He needs to be introduced to more food textures or it might be difficult to start more solid foods in the future.

 

[mamapenguin]

My 1st girl was 12.6kg at 18mths. I tried to experiment with food as much as possible. Plain white rice was her fav. (I'll sneak chicken, fish, egg and/or veggies underneath. Chicken was the only meat she'll willingly eat so I made a variety of chicken dishes. I also made her pastas and pizzas. I sometimes substitute brown rice for her porridge. Whipped potatoes, roasted butternut squash, steamed baby corn, baked fish/chicken nuggets and pan fried meat balls. Fried rice, mee sua, kway teow soup... the list goes on. On top of that she still drank formula before her afternoon nap and before bed. Oh, she loves cheese. I give her the cube ones... Belcubes.

 

[camom]

My kids are 97% percentile range when they were born. For my son, he slid all the way to 25% percentile and has remained there ever since. The paed does not see any cause for concern as his growth is still constant with no sudden ups or downs. He is eating well, in fact, eating more than my elder kid at 8yo. Also, he did mention that heavy birth wt only means that the placenta was extremely efficient in delivering nutrients to the bb.

 

[Ting]

yah i think you shld introduce more variety of food to your child, at 18 mths old, he shouldnt be eating just mainly porridge, if not, it will also affect his ability to learn how to chew food since porridge usually requires little or no chewing. pin was 12kgs at 12 mths old, cant really recall but i think she shld be arnd 13 kgs when she is 18mths old.

 

[meiteoh]

My boy is 18mth plus but only wt 9.3 kg. Wt reduced after he's
having diahorea for 1 week. When he recover recently，
he refused most meat and ate very little porriage. dont know how to
force him to eat.
And mum keep saying rice is difficult to digest for young child.
Me and hub still fed him rice thou. But maincaregiver is my mum
and she's giving him porriage most of the times. .
Am very upset that his wt gain is so slow.. ESP now that he's
refusing his food..

Re weight:
A friend of mine who is a paed dietitian has mentioned many times over and over again that so long as your child is not dropping off the growth chart and hitting his milestones, what the scales say is not important. Eva is the same age as your boy and she's around his weight as well. My paed never said a word about her weight except that "too fat is not good" "what's important is that she's healthy and active". The older generation have long equated that chubby babies are healthy - that's wrong. Food for thought - chubby babies have higher risks of developing obesity and heart-related problems as children. What is more important is what they put into their mouths not so much the quantity.

Which brings me to the next point:

Re food:

This is what my friend above has to say about parenting and food and pay close attention to the 2nd last paragraph:

My best tip is: keep it simple. stay off the sugar, honey, salt or any sort of flavour enhancing stuffs... keep it as natural as they come. if you want to add a little flavour, you can use breastmilk or formula milk, some cheese, herbs, broth (without salt) etc. Try to stay off any foods or drinks that are sweet and/or savoury for as long as you can. For example: I had never given any sweet drinks to my children - no cordial, no packed drinks, no vitagen, no MILO, no fizzy drinks, no honey, no Ribena etc... it has always been plain water. As a result, my children - all school going now, have always preferred water (even in birthday parties when asked what drink they want, they will say water please). My eldest tries some cordial and fizzy drink in some party and he told me he found they taste weird and he literally spit them out. In short, children do not need flavoured drinks and foods and if you introduce flavoured foods early to children, it is no wonder that when they become adults, they will develop a preference for sweet and savoury foods (and these foods are normally high in calories and low in nutritive value).

Specifically, there are foods parents should not be giving their children before 12 months of age:

1) Cow's milk as drink (NOT Before 12 months of age as cow's milk is a poor source of iron)

2) Honey (not even in its diluted form) - risk of infection from spores + introducing infant to sweetness

3) Nuts - risk of choking (some children cannot eat nuts until 3 yo when their oral motor and swallowing is more mature to prevent choking)

4) Tea, coffee, herbal drinks, fizzy/carbonated drinks

Currently, we are also debating on the recommendation for fruit juice - some countries still say diluted fruit juice is ok for babies but we are fighting for a more specific recommendation. Personally, I think that babies should not be offered fruit juice, not even diluted fruit juice because fruit juice is = sugar with little to no fibre and it also introduces baby to sweetness, thus cultivating the early preference for sweet foods. Diluted fruit juice/ 100% fruit juice also offer no added nutritional benefit over that of consumption of the fruit itself. It has also been associated with increased risk of childhood obesity and early childhood caries. Therefore, give your children fruits, NOT fruit juice.

Lastly, it takes 12 and more attempts of offering the same foods to infants before they are accepted. For fussy eaters, even up to 22 times and more. The key here is persistence. Feeding is parenting, much like discipline, therefore do not get "lazy" with your parenting style. If you are unable to get them to eat healthy foods when they are just infants and toddlers, imagine the trouble you'll get when they are older and are able to assert their choices more strongly. As parents, we are the gatekeepers - we buy and decide and prepare the food, it is up to the kids if they want to eat or not. Do not argue or force your child to eat. Stay calm and if your child refuses the food, put it away and calmly tell your child to tell you when he or she is ready to eat and when your child asks for food next, offer the same food and tell him or her that is all there is - do not give in and feed unhealthy foods simply because your child had skipped a meal. A healthy child will not die of hunger when given the choice of food, eventually your child will accept that he or she will not get away not eating the food offered and that there will not be any snack other than the food offered. Be persistent and your efforts will bear fruit.

Just sharing more on early feeding so that young parents are not discouraged and feel that they are alone in their struggle to get their little ones to eat. Being a parent is tough and there are no short cuts if you want your child to grow up well - this, I think, is the greatest sacrifice a parent can give his/her children: his/her 101%!!! )

 

[winder]

Thanks mummies for the advises!
Hv been vy helpful.
Juz tout it's really upset as he is much smaller then
children the same age and he is not eating much.
Mum hv given him rice these 2 days.
I'll try to give him more variety during weekends as well.. Juz
that he is quite fussy recently.