My son David has always been kind of skinny. It’s been a bit of a concern for me and my wife for a while…even though he seems to eat a lot (and eat a lot of protein), he always looks a little underweight.
He recently had to have some shots, since he’s starting kindergarten this year. So we took him to the doctor. The nurse weighed him and measured him and then told us, “Well, he’s in the seventy-fifth percentile for his weight…”
I was aghast. “He only weighs seventy-five percent of what he should?”
“Oh, no, oh, no!” she laughed. “That means he weighs more than seventy-five percent of five-year-olds.”
“So he’s actually over the normal weight? Why does he look so skinny, then?”
“Well, because he’s in the ninety-fifth percentile for his height.”
I was stunned. He doesn’t look skinny because he’s underweight, he looks skinny because he’s about six inches taller than the average five-year-old! And he just turned five two weeks ago!
Needless to say, I was relieved.
That’s actually pretty common. Our newborn son is 50% in weight and 90% in length (they call it length before they’re old enough to stand, isn’t it cute?). His legs look like toothpicks.
My son is 3 1/2 and he’s a stick. He’s pretty tall as well. We try to pack him in with whatever he’ll eat, but since my wife and I were both skinny kids I think it’s just genetic.
I have three kids. They all have had unique…quirks that we have had to deal with. For instance, my 20-month-old daughter likes to take her diaper off and play in her poop. We have to put duct tape over the tabs of her diaper to prevent her from doing so. Neither of her siblings ever did anything like that.
I liked to eat dog food according to my parents. I think it’s pretty normal for kids to do weird stuff as they explore their environment. haha