Baby With Growth Way Off The Charts High And Then Dropped.

[Aleshia]

has anyone had a baby who was born big, gained huge amounts of weight in the first 4 months and then lost a few pounds before a year? my baby would have been in like the 140'th or higher percentile by the time he was 3 months old. he went from over 10 lb at birth to 26 lb by 4 mo. and then dropped to 24 lb by 11 mo. he's 16 mo now and is 28.5 lb which means that in the last 12 months he has only gained a couple of pounds... is that normal? it doesn't seem normal to me! anyone else seen this happen? the pediatrician doesn't seem to think its a problem because he's still around 90th percentile.

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

I was just yesterday wondering the same thing with my Lukas. Well, he's only 7 months old now. But when he was born, he had 6 lb 10 oz and then at 5 months, he was 17 pounds. And this did NOT change. Now at 7 months, he is still around 17 pounds. He didn't gain an ounce. This whole thing started, when we introduced solids and yes, he had gluten introduced between months 4 and 6, like the experts say and then taken it back out of the diet after that, like you should do.

I have no clue, what is going on. He is not on gluten anymore now.

Stef

[Ursa Major]

Well, you know, I don't trust those 'experts' one bit. Personally, I think introducing gluten between 4 and 6 months to prevent celiac disease is purest nonsense, I would never do it.

Stef, that could have slowed down your son's weight gain and development, in my opinion. Make sure you don't give him dairy, and don't worry too much. And DON'T give him any gluten, either!

Aleshia, if your baby was mine, I would take gluten and dairy right out of his diet (and soy too, if he gets any) to see if it makes a difference. It sounds to me like he inherited celiac disease from you.

[Aleshia]

Aleshia, if your baby was mine, I would take gluten and dairy right out of his diet (and soy too, if he gets any) to see if it makes a difference. It sounds to me like he inherited celiac disease from you.

thanks ursa I'm just not sure what to think, I haven't even been diagnosed yet. I just had the blood draw for the celiac panel done today and on tuesday I had an ultrasound and they discovered gallstones. my dr. who is an internist was pretty convinced that there is no way that I could have celiac disease because I don't have diarrhea and I haven't been losing weight... its funny cause i'm overweight and constipated which can be symptoms too and it seems like the only time I do lose weight without trying really hard is when I do have diarrhea! anyway, I have done some research and it seems that gallstones are a pretty common thing for celiacs! and I have SO MANY other symptoms that can't really be explained by anything else. I'm 30 years old and in the last 3 years I have lost more than 2 inches of height, dr's look at me funny when I say that... and this last dr I went to was like "well thats a pretty difficult thing to know for sure..." I was thinking... a couple centimeters my be hard to know for sure but more than 2 inches!? its a pretty easily measured thing!... anyway sorry for just going on and on. I think as soon as I get my blood test results back I'm going to put the whole family on a gluten free diet and see how it goes... cause I'm pretty sure that at least 3 of the 5 of us have it!

[Aleshia]

I was just yesterday wondering the same thing with my Lukas. Well, he's only 7 months old now. But when he was born, he had 6 lb 10 oz and then at 5 months, he was 17 pounds. And this did NOT change. Now at 7 months, he is still around 17 pounds. He didn't gain an ounce. This whole thing started, when we introduced solids and yes, he had gluten introduced between months 4 and 6, like the experts say and then taken it back out of the diet after that, like you should do.

I have no clue, what is going on. He is not on gluten anymore now.

Stef

in some ways I'm glad I'm not the only one! but in other ways I'm sad that someone else has to go through the uncertainty. did your dr say anything about it? I neglected to take zimri to the dr for well child checks because he was still so chubby and happy and his developement other than that seemed to be so good and I wasn't getting him immunized on the normal schedule... now I regret that because they don't have his growth recorded on THEIR charts so they don't believe me... the dr was like "thats pretty unlikely... if his weight really did that then it would have gone straight up on the graph..." IT DID GO STRAIGHT UP ON THE GRAPH! I hate it cause its like she's saying it would be a serious thing if that did happen but won't take it seriously because she doesn't believe me!

anyway sorry for ranting to you

[mommida]

Pediatricians won't do much until your child drops down off the charts. Then they will diagnose "failure to thrive".

Moms you have to trust your mom instincts on this, really because even the testing for celiac isn't that reliable for you children's age.

For the record, my daughter stopped gaining weight at 7 months too. Considering she still grew in height, I say she lost weight. She was diagnosed probable Celiac Disease at 17 months. She did not gain weight until she started the gluten free diet. (10 months of not gaining weight~ and nothing was done until I requested testing for Celiac!! because she didn't fall of the growth chart)

[Ursa Major]

Aleshia, I am afraid that your significant loss in height might be due to osteoporosis. Yes, even CHILDREN with celiac disease have been diagnosed with osteoporosis!

I suggest you ask to have a bone density test done, and be tested for vitamin D, calcium and magnesium as well.

If your doctor won't believe you, switch doctors, Way too many doctors are woefully ignorant about celiac disease and gluten intolerance. And they know even less about nutrition.

I am glad you will try your family on a gluten-free diet, regardless of test results. Those tests are notoriously unreliable for young children, and only somewhat less so in adults. We have members here who had negative blood tests, but positive biopsies.

But even if both blood work and biopsy are negative, celiac disease cannot be ruled out.

[Aleshia]

Pediatricians won't do much until your child drops down off the charts. Then they will diagnose "failure to thrive".

Moms you have to trust your mom instincts on this, really because even the testing for celiac isn't that reliable for you children's age.

For the record, my daughter stopped gaining weight at 7 months too. Considering she still grew in height, I say she lost weight. She was diagnosed probable Celiac Disease at 17 months. She did not gain weight until she started the gluten free diet. (10 months of not gaining weight~ and nothing was done until I requested testing for Celiac!! because she didn't fall of the growth chart)

well considering he is currently in the 90th percentile I would say it is gonna be a LONG time before he falls off the charts stupid dr.s... I have had very few good experiences with dr.s in my life! and even then they end up disappointing me somewhere along the line...

[cyberprof]

The research I've done (for teenagers and growth) says that if children "cross percentiles" that is a bad sign. Like if a child is always at 10% for height that's ok. It's when they go from 100th percentile to 25th percentile that it is important. As Ursa said, try another doctor and also try gluten free. Good advice. Best of luck to you - I hope it helps.

~Laura

[Aleshia]

The research I've done (for teenagers and growth) says that if children "cross percentiles" that is a bad sign. Like if a child is always at 10% for height that's ok. It's when they go from 100th percentile to 25th percentile that it is important. As Ursa said, try another doctor and also try gluten free. Good advice. Best of luck to you - I hope it helps.

~Laura

hi, thanks. I know how many percentiles he would have crossed since he was so high off the charts! I know he did cross some though... its just not being taken seriously

I think I'm going to show the dr. the growth chart that I did myself and show her just how much of a difference there is... its just scary to think that my baby has only gained 2 lb.s in 12 mo. he's been in size 2 clothing since he was 4 months old... it saves money on clothes but its not healthy!

[Aleshia]

hi, thanks. I know how many percentiles he would have crossed ...

that was supposed to read "I don't know how many..."

[Pattymom]

I don't know if your babies were breastfed or not, but a strong or overactive let-down often leads to extreme weight gain in the firts 3-4 months, followed by a drop off, usually discovered with confusion around the 6 month check-up. That might explain early bursts of high weight gain. Also, some babies dont' gain as much when they start moving, their heights should stay on the curve. I would be worried if the drop off continued past 6-7 months without recovery

That said, trust your mothering instincts, if you think there is something wrong, there probably is. All my kids are under teh 25% for size, though only the last one fell off her curve. No one could understand why I was worried because " all your kids are small" I'm the mom and I knew the difference.

good luck finding good medical help.

Patty

[Aleshia]

I don't know if your babies were breastfed or not, but a strong or overactive let-down often leads to extreme weight gain in the firts 3-4 months, followed by a drop off, usually discovered with confusion around the 6 month check-up. That might explain early bursts of high weight gain. Also, some babies dont' gain as much when they start moving, their heights should stay on the curve. I would be worried if the drop off continued past 6-7 months without recovery

That said, trust your mothering instincts, if you think there is something wrong, there probably is. All my kids are under teh 25% for size, though only the last one fell off her curve. No one could understand why I was worried because " all your kids are small" I'm the mom and I knew the difference.

good luck finding good medical help.

Patty

I breastfed for 11 months. I also breastfed my other 2 and their weight was high right from the beginning too but stayed high all the way through. nothing changed when I started solids

[tweetykl]

My son was 21lbs at 6 months and only 22 lbs. at 14 months when he was diagnosed with a wheat allergy. We had no idea but were concerned for a very long time about his lack of weight gain. We already knew he was allergic to milk because they talked me into putting him on formula and within 24 hours we had it figured out. We had only gone into the allergist because we wanted the milk allergy diagnosed.

I really do believe that children that do not gain weight all of sudden are having allergy issues. Another parent I knew was going through similar issues and the child was diagnosed failure to thrive and come to find out, a year late she was diagnosed celiac.

Mother's instinct truly should rule over the doctor's opinions. Go with your gut and find a specialist in your area, allergist or GI doc.

[Aleshia]

My son was 21lbs at 6 months and only 22 lbs. at 14 months when he was diagnosed with a wheat allergy. We had no idea but were concerned for a very long time about his lack of weight gain. We already knew he was allergic to milk because they talked me into putting him on formula and within 24 hours we had it figured out. We had only gone into the allergist because we wanted the milk allergy diagnosed.

I really do believe that children that do not gain weight all of sudden are having allergy issues. Another parent I knew was going through similar issues and the child was diagnosed failure to thrive and come to find out, a year late she was diagnosed celiac.

Mother's instinct truly should rule over the doctor's opinions. Go with your gut and find a specialist in your area, allergist or GI doc.

thanks I'll look into it. I actually have a naturopath dr that I see sometimes, she is the one that did my blood test (should have results back in about 3 days!) anyway she sees children and I trust her so I'm gonna get the kids an appointment asap. She may not catch everything the first time but she listens to what I have to say and takes it seriously and if I ask her to do a test she is more than willing and is very very thorough!

[feedmykids]

Make your Doctor listen to you! I am only 4' 10" so when my babies were very small and not even on the weight and height charts the doctors would say "well the Mom is very small" WE finally heard about celiac and had my girls tested. One of my DD's came up VERY positive. And guess what - after that I got tested too and came up positive too!