Hi everyone,
My daughter, Paige, is a bright, beautiful but tiny little girl. Between 6 and 12 months, we noticed she was smaller than your average child. At 12 months, she began to fall of her growth curve. Shortly after her first birthday, she got rotavirus and became severely dehydrated. After 4 trips to the ER (they thought I only wanted a cure for the stomach flu), she was admitted for 5 days and closely monitored. She was 17.5 lbs at her 1 year check up, she lost 1 1/2 lbs from rotavirus at admittance and upon discharge she weighed 18 lbs. A pediatrician who is a specialist thought she had celiac disease but testing came back negative. Her pediatrician asked to see her at 18 months to follow up. We followed up on October 8 and she still weighed 18 lbs, He did a panel of testing, which included the typical CBC's, Iron and then Diabetes, Thyroid Function, Growth Hormone Deficiency and a retest for Celiac. He got part of the results today (all except the Growth Hormone) and the only thing it shows so far is iron deficiency. I am at a loss right now and am confused as to what my next step is. I am okay with her being small ONLY if it is not an underlying health condition that will cause her problems in the future. I don't want her to become an avoidable statistic because something was overlooked. She is currently meeting all of her milestones developmentally and is eating like a normal child. She is my third child and my smallest. My oldest is 6 1/2 and he looks as though he is 8 or 9 - he is 3'11" and 56 1/4 lbs and my second child is 5 1/2 and weighs 35 lbs and is 3'5" (he has always been smaller but has kept a consistent growth curve). What more can I do? Also, just out of curiosity, if a child is "meant to be small" and seem to be doing well developmentally, what are the benefits of a high calorie diet?