
15 Months Old Is 8.5 Kg. Diagnosed With Dengue And Hepatitis A. Is She Underweight?

She is an extremely poor eater. Is she underweight? Also she has not yet started walking. She stands with support, however, does not stand. I am worried. Pl let me know what can be done?
Also, what can i give her to eat on a daily basis such that her weight increases. Now the peadritician has asked us to keep her off fried food, butter, oil, cheese , ghee etc for some more months till she completely recovers from Hep A.
Pl advice.
Thanks for the query.
I can understand your concern as a mother. Unfortunately she had two debilitating illnesses within 15 months of age. Anyway good that she got over the acute problems!
For the weight question -what was her birth weight?
Weight gain in kids is always correlated to birth weight. 8.5 kg is definitely low for 15 months old baby.
Regarding not standing yet-it may be due to 2 reasons
1- The illness she had in between will cause some delay
2- The under nutrition is another cause
You take care of her nutrition, stimulate her more, give her gentle physiotherapy and she should improve. I assume she was earlier a developmentally normal child with no problems immediately after birth.
Regarding her feeds- what she needs now is a high protein and high calorie diet which is fat restricted because of hepatitis A. You can give her starchy food like rice, mashed potato, boiled XXXXXXX curd, banana, idly, kichadi, etc. Fruit juices give lot of calories also. A mixture of cereals available in the market can also be given.
However because of HepA she will take time to gain appetite and gain weight.
Be careful about the hygiene of food and water (as Hep A comes through contamination of food) in future also because these infections affect the baby in growth and development.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other enquiries.
Good luck and God bless!!!
Dr Uma


She was 3.7kg when she was born. She was doing fine till she developed these diseases. Just that I get worried.
Will do what you have prescribed.
Also I have developed diabetes now and am feeding her too. Any chances of her too developing the same disease?
Regards.. XXXXXXX
Thanks for the details.
If birth weight was 3.7 kgs, she should be about 11-12kg now!
Anyways don't worry. She will catch up soon.
Follow my suggestions, keep her away from public places, overcrowded places, known patients with flu and give her time to recover.
Your diabetes has no relation to feeding her. Carry on.
By God's grace, she will recover fast.
Good luck
Dr Uma

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