Concern that baby or young child is too thin

Concern that baby or young child is too thin
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Concern that baby or young child is too thin

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I’m always amazed at the number of parents who worry that their children are too lean. Healthy children, children offered really good food, sometimes children with both parents tall and lean and the parents and grandparents and the aunts and uncles are worried that the child is too lean. And what I tell them is that it’s a rare American who makes a New Year’s resolution to gain 10 pounds. “I know I said it last year, boy, but this year, I’m going to try to gain 10 pounds.” Everybody is trying to get leaner and fitter. Children are really good animals – they get all the calories they need. Offer them good food, they will eat good food. There are children with illnesses. They are much more obviously unwell than just a lean, healthy child. The kids who I see – virtually every child – and I feel like saying every child – who I see in my office who is quite lean is also just bouncing off the walls, running in circles in the exam room playing with every single toy, and they’re lean. And when I point out to the parents is that when they turn on a television and they watch the Olympics or the NBA, they’ll see that the best athletes do not have a lot of extra fat and kids are natural athletes until we get in their way. If your child is lean and healthy and active, leave him alone.
ALL PARENTS, Health and Wellness

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Jay Gordon, MD

Pediatrician

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.

In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.

Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”

After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live. 

Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets.
 Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”

More Parenting Videos from Jay Gordon, MD >
Transcription: 
I’m always amazed at the number of parents who worry that their children are too lean. Healthy children, children offered really good food, sometimes children with both parents tall and lean and the parents and grandparents and the aunts and uncles are worried that the child is too lean. And what I tell them is that it’s a rare American who makes a New Year’s resolution to gain 10 pounds. “I know I said it last year, boy, but this year, I’m going to try to gain 10 pounds.” Everybody is trying to get leaner and fitter. Children are really good animals – they get all the calories they need. Offer them good food, they will eat good food. There are children with illnesses. They are much more obviously unwell than just a lean, healthy child. The kids who I see – virtually every child – and I feel like saying every child – who I see in my office who is quite lean is also just bouncing off the walls, running in circles in the exam room playing with every single toy, and they’re lean. And when I point out to the parents is that when they turn on a television and they watch the Olympics or the NBA, they’ll see that the best athletes do not have a lot of extra fat and kids are natural athletes until we get in their way. If your child is lean and healthy and active, leave him alone.
ALL PARENTS, Health and Wellness