Petite

I am short, 5 feet even. All the women in my family, both sides, are short. I think my tallest Aunt towers at 5 feet 3 inches. So I will never understand why pediatricians give me a hard time about my childrens size. They are small, tiny even. They started out as average size babies, sometimes even going over 60th percentiles, but between 2-3 years old they just stop growing as fast as other children.

Both of my daughters in school are the smallest of their class. Lilly has a little better reason, she was born in late July so she started school right after she turned five. So in addition to being the smallest she is also the youngest. Aidan is on the older side of the kids in her class, but still she is the smallest. Sophia right now is on the low side of average for height, but weight she is in the bottom 10th percentile. Same goes for Aidan and Lilly for their weights. I feed them I really do and they look healthy, not skin and bones. Aidan even still has a bit of a budda belly. Lilly and Sophia both have very well defined abs, odd to see on such little people. I really would rather them be this way then be overweight and fighting that battle.

So my original point is, I really cannot understand why they have to give me such a hard time. I keep telling them to take a look at me and notice how short I am. Or I ask if they would like me to parade my mom and aunt in there to give more genetic reasons on why they are so small. I could bring in my dad and brother, neither are very tall for men. I could even bring in my MIL, she's taller than me but not by much. Finally after about a year of being questioned and told "we should watch their growth closely", our current doctor, who we've been seeing for almost two years now, has finally given up and realized genetics is at fault. Not malnourishment.