Pediatrician says he’s fine. You say he is steadily growing. He sounds playful and strong.
Stop comparing him to others. It will bring you no joy, only anxiety.
I’m sorry your family isn’t more supportive. That is very hard!
If he is steadily growing and the paediatrician isn’t concerned, I wouldn’t be either.
From personal experience, my 9 month old despises bland things but prefers things with lots of flavour (might be worth a try?) could be a textured aversion as well?
A popular account on Instagram called Kids.Eat.In.Color - she’s got a PhD in toddler nutrition and other things - I highly recommend going over her stuff and maybe dropping her a DM.
And just incase you haven’t heard this - you’re doing GREAT mama! Your little one is growing and you are taking care of him ❤️❤️❤️
Try full-fat everything - yogurt, cook things in butter, etc. It’s good that the pediatrician isn’t concerned, but a low-calorie diet at a young age could potentially impact his long-term growth.. which as a boy could be hard on him.
Also, there may be a parenting sub that’s a better place for this question. It seems more behavior based than nutrition based.
The thing that is kind of comforting about babies is they listen to their bodies.
Meaning if they’re hungry they eat and if they are sleepy they sleep. Or if something is obstructing sleep/eating they let you know (usually by crying).
Point is some babies are smaller and eat less but grow normally. Some babies are bigger and eat more and grow normally.
Comparing your baby to standards that are “ideal” but not necessarily founded in reality is a bad way to go through life. Learn to listen to your kid.
It’s also important to remember that kids go through cycles. For example; my kid is generally a sweet heart. Very thoughtful and sweet. Except when a growthspurt happens. Then they turn into an ass hole. But I know as soon as the growth spurt starts happening to expect some sass.
You get a feel for your kid. Don’t listen to the “your kid should be doing X thing by Y date” or you’re going to have a very rough time and your kid will be worse off for it in the long run.
First of all as others have said, trust your pediatrician, and don’t worry about how fast your kiddo is growing in comparison with others.
As someone with an almost two year old who can be hard to feed, providing variety is super helpful.
Just recently we learned that our little one likes fish sticks and popcorn shrimp.
What all types of food have you tried?
Lots of good advice, I’ll do some controversial ones. It’s important for your babe to get there micros but calories and macros are way more important now. As long as your kid is not lethargic you’re fine. Don’t look at what other parents do, if your kid gets most of their calories from formula and snacks. So what? As long as they grow and thrive
Have you tried making smoothies for him? You can hide all sorts of nutrition in smoothie form! Protein powder, high quality oils, fiber, etc, and it all just ends up tasting like fruit. Sorry you are going through this.
Percentiles are what matter not pounds. As long as baby doesn’t drop percentiles then weight gain is what you expect, so a 5% new born staying at 5% consistently is just a small kid not unhealthy. A 50% newborn dropping to 5% (or even 35%) would be cause for concern.
After 6 weeks you would not expect percentiles to change more than 5% in either direction until after age 2. At 2 growth patterns do change so there may be a shift in % but you want kids to be in comparable % for height as they are for weight.
If they dr is happy and he’s growing then ignore family and friends. The charts are useful but only to make sure you kid is gaining weight etc it’s not a race to get to the top percentile. Also worth noting that toddler diets are often looked at over a week because some days they’ll eat 2 bites and others heaps if that makes sense.
You are doing a great job!
Keep going and keep offering food even when it feels mega frustrating.
Well Nourished has some good blogs for picky eaters and toddlers it might be worth a google. She’s a nutritionists and often works with a child therapist on behaviour based food stuff.