My friend Megin has a darling son. He is just a delight – surfboarder blond hair, mischievousness by the truckload, and a verbosity that is striking in someone under 2. All of that, though, and the doctors focus on his weight.

He has been labeled “underweight”. I have to wonder according to which scale? In my well-thumbed copy of Super Baby Food, there is a growth chart from the ’70s. On that chart, my little friend is still considered small, but not too small. On today’s charts – well, he’s not on them. After doing a little research, I found that these charts are continually updated and that there is no doubt that babies are getting bigger. That does not mean healthier, to me. Just bigger.

The term “underweight” has been applied to approximately one-third of the kids in my social circle. Is it because most of these moms breast-fed their kids for a year or more? Is it because there is some weird growth vortex in our neighborhood? I don’t know the answer but I know that my poor friends are pushed to the brink pushing foods on their toddlers. Batteries of tests are run, parents are investigated for malnutrition charges, new diets are instituted (is it Celiac disease? some kind of food allergy?) When no scientific answer can be found, an exhausted parent is told, “S/he’s just small.”