> > he has plenty of excellent, nutritious food available to him and he just
> > eats small amounts.>>
>
> zinc insufficiency is worth looking at when appetite is low.   it's not
> an uncommon problem and is easily resolved.
>

We did try zinc supplements but they didn't make a difference in his
appetite. I think he is just genetically meant to be small, like his aunt
Lisa!

I also think that, given all our concerns about obesity in today's world, we
should be very cautious about overfeeding these young children to satisfy
some numbers on a chart. I was also a slow-gaining breastfed baby; my mother
was urged to feed me solids at an early age to get me to gain more quickly -
she remembers giving me chocolate fudge when I was six or seven months on
her doctor's advice! As a toddler, I was a scrawny little thing, and again
she was constantly pressured to feed me more. I remember being forced to sit
at the table until I ate everything on my plate - and actually falling
asleep at the table because I'd been there for hours. The result today is
that I am seriously overweight. I sometimes wonder if the health problems I
have now due to my weight could have been avoided by just allowing me to be
the smaller than average child I believe I was meant to be.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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