Slow Growing Children

I jokingly call my two younger kids "non-growing" children, but decided that a better title to this post would be slow growing children. With both Brayden and Katie I have been told that they are too little and that testing may be necessary since they are not growing enough. Here is a little bit about each kid:

Brayden- started off huge. He was just shy of 10 pounds when he was born and nursed every 2 hours for about the first 6 months of his life. At each of his check ups he was in the 90th percentile. Then he started eating solid foods earnestly and cut down on his nursing and eventually stopped around one year. He slowly began dropping down in his percentiles until at his two year check up he was in the 5th or lower percentile for his weight and 5 to 10th percentile for his height. I will tell you that he was in the 95th percentile for his head growth. That kid has a big ol' melon. That is when the doctor first talked about testing for causes of his size. I was not really concerned and actually slightly offended that someone thought there was something wrong with my kid. Jake and I are both on the smaller side, so to us it only made sense that Brayden would be small. I am 5'3" and Jake is only 5'7". I quickly got over being offended, but I still wanted to make sure that if we put Brayden through any serious testing that there really be a reason. We agreed with his doctor to keep tracking his growth and set milestones that we wanted him to reach. He slowly but surely put on some weight and some height and I'm happy to say that at his 4 year check up this week he was in the 75th percentile for his weight and 25th percentile for his height(they don't check the head at this age, but its still big!). I will add that I was aware that Brayden had a pretty serious growth spurt over the summer. He began the summer wearing 18 month shorts and 2T tops and now wears 4T tops and 3T pants. He didn't change his eating habits at all, except there were a couple days I remember thinking that he at a lot that day.

Katie-started off small. When I was 36 weeks pregnant, I went in for a sonogram because she had been breach. When they measured her legs and head and whatever else they measure they noticed that she was pretty small for how far along I was. It was a bit of a shock to me since my first two kids had weighed over 9 pounds when born. The doctor was actually going to induce me a week early before we noticed the issue with her size. The process to complete my pregnancy and ensure her health was not too bad. I went in every week for a non-stress test and everything turned out great. I was induced on my due date and Katie was 6 pounds 14 ounces. I loved the experience of having a small baby after the first two! Katie has continued to be small. She was in the 5 to 10th percentile for her first few check ups, but at her 9 month check up she wasn't even on the charts anymore. She weighed only 13 pounds and I honestly can't remember her height. She had gained no weight since her 6 month check up. The doctor said this could be because she had been crawling since she was 6 months old and could also be contributed to nursing less and eating more solid food. We will go in for her 1 year check up in a few weeks, so I will be sure to add an update to this post. Katie is a great eater. She has been self feeding exclusively since she was 7 months old and really loves most foods, especially vegetables. She is proportionate and developmentally right on track. I think I just have small children.

I will be sure to update this subject as each kid grows and gets older. For now, I'm happy with the way things are going with both my "little" kids and our communication with our doctor.