The worst nightmare of mothers and grandmothers in the world is a thin child. For some reason, it is generally accepted that a baby who is raised by all the rules should be chubby, with pink cheeks. Any other appearance of the peanut is perceived as a sign of its malnutrition or some kind of soreness. Most often, caring parents exaggerate the problem a little, but the fact remains: you always need to monitor the weight of the baby. Loving mothers literally ask themselves questions every day, looking at the thin legs and arms of their little frog: are they feeding him correctly, are they offering him the right products, are they enough of the necessary vitamins? We will try to answer these questions and pay attention to what needs to be done so that the arrow of the scales gradually moves up.
Worry or still not worth it?
Often, parental unrest is completely groundless. The baby’s physique depends not only on his health in general and on how and what he eats. And so it is clear: if parents and grandparents are not athletic physique and do not have excess weight, then a very small percentage of the baby will grow fed up with a baby.
It must be understood that if a very thin child ate, then he won’t immediately gain weight, and a huge meal of flour goodies will not make him an exact copy of the plump kids from the next house. But if you force the little one to eat intensely, it can only aggravate the situation and develop a disgust for the food offered in the baby.
Types of thinness
To agree or, on the contrary, to disagree with these fears is possible only after consultation with relevant specialists. Modern medicine has comparative tables, according to which you can determine the normal weight for the child. This indicator will depend on the growth, age, gender and activity of the baby.
If a pediatrician has identified a weight defect, then you need to look for its cause. Two types of thinness can be distinguished. Healthy - when the body structure is determined by a predisposition in connection with genetics. Pathological - it will be a consequence of the impact on the body of a certain disease or delayed development.
In the first case, you can defeat a small body mass by simply using normalization of the baby’s nutrition. In the second, timely adequate treatment will come to the rescue.
We study the results of analyzes
You should not immediately sound the alarm, asking the eternal question why the child is thin. Because of what this is happening, we will consider a little later. As a rule, loss of appetite refers to the primary source of thinness. This happens for physical or psychological reasons. It has long been known that if a baby suffers from SARS, tonsillitis, and some other infectious diseases, he loses a tenth of his weight. But after only two to three weeks it is quite capable of recovering the spent kilograms.
The psychological factor is no less common. Great emotional excitement, stresses received in kindergarten or school, caused by misunderstanding or novelty, lead to depression, apathy. The result is a violation of the digestive system.
There are times that everything seems to be in order, but a thin child. In this case, weight loss is due to parasites. Kids may not always follow the rules of personal hygiene, so helminths are a frequent occurrence for them. If the baby has developed the habit of taking everything in his mouth, if he is reluctant to wash his hands and likes to hug all domestic dogs and cats, the chances are that worms have settled in his body.
But be that as it may, before you panic, you need to conduct a comprehensive examination of the baby's body for pathologies. It is possible to understand whether there is any deviation from the norm by examining the results of a blood test, urine, feces, ultrasound and x-rays of internal organs.
Why are newborns slowly gaining weight? They are simply malnourished
The reasons for very slow weight gain by infants should be considered separately. Due to the fact that they cannot speak, newborns will not be able to explain to their mother what is bothering them. Therefore, parents need to carefully monitor the slightest changes in the health of the crumbs. The most common source of abnormalities is malnutrition. A thin child in a year or only three to four months of age may be due to the fact that he eats little. In this case, the mother can weigh the baby before and after feeding. Having collected several indications of changes in the body weight of the baby, she must report this information to the attending physician. If all suspicions are confirmed, then he can prescribe additional nutritional mixtures that will help to cope with the current situation.
The activity of the kids does not allow them to recover
When a mother makes a diet of crumbs older than five months of age, she should consult a specialist. Quite often, there is a violation of the absorption of nutrients due to the fact that there are not enough vitamins, fats or carbohydrates.
The kid grows up, begins to crawl, then learns to walk. So he becomes more active.
In this case, thin children, photo which can be seen in the article are not sick children. Simply, they can now perform many movements, due to which it is difficult for them to recover.
The main thing for a mother is to know: if her baby is a little behind in weight from her peers, but at the same time she is very rarely ill, and develops physically and mentally quite correctly, then she should not worry and worry. Indeed, in the vast majority of cases, this is either a predisposition inherited, or a structural feature of the baby’s body.
Important reasons: food and heredity
There are six main reasons why both a small child and a little older child remain thin.
The first reason. The baby does not eat milk. This can be even when he spends half a day near his mother’s chest. Nevertheless, the peanut will remain thin - due to the fact that it does not suck well, mom has little milk or simply falls asleep during eating. It is necessary to track how much a peanut can drink at a time. If the figure turns out to be less than the norm, then the pediatrician will teach you how to properly apply it to the chest and even tell you what funds can be purchased in order to enhance lactation. Sometimes a doctor may recommend feeding a baby with a mixture if he is less than four months old, or vegetable puree if he is 4-5 months old.
The second reason. The figure is inherited from the ancestors. Skinny baby maybe not because he is sick. He simply inherited his figure from his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Both height and weight of the baby are significantly dependent on genes. If mom and dad are slim, then in most cases their little one will have the same physique (though in this case there are some exceptions). If the baby is not born very large, but it is absolutely healthy and is gaining weight steadily (even if it is slightly less than what is expected by the average rate), mother should not worry.
And then a thin child is always more agile and agile than plump. Such children are often in better health than their peers, strong.
Important reasons: taste preferences and diet
The third reason. The kid does not like the taste of new products. It happens that babies refuse to eat from a bottle or spoon instead of sucking. They do not agree to eat mashed potatoes - both vegetable and fruit, cereals, curds. But in this case, one should not immediately get upset if in the first days of complementary feeding the little one begins to act up and does not want to eat. Mom needs to be patient and for several days carefully offer him complementary foods. Once the baby nevertheless tastes adult food and will gladly absorb it in the future.
The fourth reason. Mom made the children's diet incorrectly. And the baby is growing, but not getting better, the child is thin. What to do in this situation? Mom needs to take in the habit of adding 3-5 g of vegetable or butter for every 100 g of vegetable soup. If the baby is already very thin, then butter can be added even to porridge and desserts. A uniform diet and more than necessary, the amount of sugar in the dishes can also be the cause of the baby’s small weight.
Important Causes: Mobility and Disease
The fifth reason. The baby is quite mobile. Karapuzu does not sit in one place. He constantly does something: crawls, flips from his tummy to the back, waves his arms and legs. A lot of energy is spent on all these actions. Therefore, the child remains thin, because the fat does not have time to be deposited, because the calories obtained with food are consumed very quickly.
The sixth reason. Baby got sick. If it happens that at first the baby develops well, but at some point it ceases to gain weight. In this case, consult a pediatrician. It happens that the cause of all this is a disease, such as celiac disease or cystic fibrosis. In addition, mom should pay attention to the fact that a worsened appetite and a rare decrease in weight may be due to the fact that there are parasites in the body of the peanut.
If the baby is a little behind the generally accepted indicators of growth and weight (regarding his age), but at the same time he feels well and is developing correctly, mastering new skills in accordance with the times, then parents should not worry.
What to do?
Yes, it happens that, despite all the efforts of the parents, the child remains thin. The reasons were stated above. So it’s already clear that not in all cases it is necessary to desperately sound the alarm.
Mommies need to remember: for a baby, poor appetite is not dangerous. The child’s body has one magical mechanism that allows you to determine how much food and what kind of food it needs to eat in order to grow and develop normally. But if the peanut is still a bad eater, then the doctor’s observation will be very useful: he will tell you what substances the baby is missing and how to replace them.
The main thing is that the baby does not have any unpleasant associations from food. After all, mom has no purpose to make the baby eat. She needs to create the conditions for him to want to eat.
If the mother is too worried about her baby’s poor appetite, it is better to offer him small portions for a while, that is, the food in the plate should be slightly less than usual. When the baby sees a full bowl of soup or porridge, he understands that all this must be eaten, otherwise mom will scold. This is even more able to reduce his appetite. Therefore, it is better to put a teaspoon of vegetables, as much meat or as much flour food. And when the baby eats all this, praise him and ask if he wants supplements. It will take him only a few days to figure out and ask for an addition from his mother on his own. So appetite can be much better.