My son has always grown quickly. He was a roly-poly baby, a sturdy toddler and the tallest kid in his nursery school class. Now that he's in kindergarten and more active than ever he frequently grows too quickly for his weight to keep pace with his height. Any pants long enough for his legs fall right off his waist and every now and then my mom takes me aside to ask, "Do you think he’s too skinny?"

Whether it's to satisfy yourself or to allay Grandma's concerns we've come up with answers to help you know when skinniness is just a normal part of growing and strategies you can use to help "feed up" your rapidly growing child.

Family physician Nora McBean says awareness is the key to determining whether your child’s being skinny is part of a normal growth spurt or a cause for concern:

• Know where your child falls on growth curves and, with the help of your doctor, monitor to make sure they’re staying on the appropriate curve. Both the World Health Organization and the Canadian Paediatric Society offer child growth information and charts online.
• Keep in mind family history – as children did you or your partner go through skinny phases?
• Watch your child. A happy, healthy, active child who is generally eating well is probably doing fine.

You should be concerned, and should see your doctor, if your child has diarrhea, nausea or vomiting or if he drops below the fifth percentile.

Kerri Seigel, a registered dietitian, offers the following do's and don'ts to help keep your child eating well and getting the nutrients she needs during growth spurts.

Don't overreact. Seigel says since children's appetites fluctuate considerably from day to day, parents shouldn't worry too much about an untouched meal or even a couple of days of light eating. She says rewarding or punishing children with food or forcing them to eat food they don't want overrides children's instincts about eating and can do long-term damage.

One of Seigel's preferred references to help parents avoid mealtime power struggles is Ellyn Satter’s "division of responsibility," which, simply put, says parents are responsible for what, when and where children eat and children are responsible for how much and whether they eat.

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