Why is my child not gaining weight?

boy eating strawberries

Children need a balanced diet to develop and grow optimally, while remaining healthy. However, many parents frequently face moments of uncertainty that lead them to wonder Why is my child not gaining weight? to which we will answer by reading this post.

Growth problems in children

In general, children during their first years of life they grow rapidly and steadily; however, when this is not according to the standards experienced by most of them, their parents suspect that there may be some problem that prevents them from gaining weight and height as they should.

The delay in its growth can be caused by different causes, some of them associated with a disease, as a consequence of a bad nutrition or even by the presence of worms in children; those little parasites practically imperceptible to the naked eye, but which spread rapidly, infecting your entire body and other family members.

To effectively detect what is the reason why your little one does not gain weight and consequently its growth is slow, It is recommended that you take him to a consultation with his pediatrician, who will tell you how much it should increase based on their age and physical build, as well as the necessary tests to establish if they are actually facing a problem during their development.

Possible causes that affect a child's growth

A child may show red flags that will tell you if they are malnourished, since they may not be gaining weight, but they are still healthy. When a child experiences an eating disorder, they often lose interest in their surroundings, avoids eye contact with other people, is always irritable and upset, in addition to not exceeding its stages of development in a normal way.

children size and weight

In this sense, the nutritional deficiency experienced by the child leads to you starting to sit, talk, or walk later than usual; while the possible causes for this problem may be associated with the following:

  • You are not eating enough food or it is not part of a balanced diet to help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid different types of diseases.
  • The child suffers from any pathology that causes delayed growth and it causes you to eat very little, as is the case with autism, was premature at birth or has problems with hyperthyroidism, anorexia, anxiety, type 1 diabetes or other similar disorders.
  • The child may be experienced disorders related to your digestive system, which prevents you from gaining weight; such as diarrhea, gastric reflux, cystic fibrosis or celiac disease, among others.
  • La food intolerance It is another element that is often not detected in time by parents and causes their child's body not to absorb, for example, the protein present in milk or cheese as expected, which affects their growth.
  • All the infectionsAs well as the presence of parasites, they are elements that make the nutrients ingested by children rapidly metabolized, without increasing their weight and considerably reducing their appetite.

What can I do if my child does not gain weight?

To respond to that concern that frequently occurs in the minds of many parents, you should know that growth problems can be caused by one or more medical problems at the same time, even They can be associated with environmental problems, as well as being part of the emotional disorders that your child is facing.

To be sure, many little ones go through life stages in which their weight stagnates, but only briefly. Pediatricians use tables to determine if your child's height or weight is in accordance with his age and if they observe any warning sign, they will indicate the measures you must adopt to correct the problem.


infant percentile

Growth charts and percentiles used by the pediatrician are valuable elements in determining the appropriate weight for each child; therefore during their first years of life you need to keep it under regular control and if everything goes well during this stage, surely its growth will be progressive and constant.

Remember emotionally children are not always receptive to certain types of food, so they will experience moments of great appetite and others where they will remain completely listless. If you have carried out all the relevant tests to check that everything is fine in his body, don't worry, he will start to eat more and gain weight at his own pace.

So that you have a clear idea about weight gain in children: the first months of life they gain approximately 200 grams per week, doubling its weight at five months; tripling it a year and weighing four times more at two years. But then their growth stops being so fast and stabilizes, causing them to increase only by 1 to 3 kilograms per year.


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