29 Weeks Baby Fallen From 50th To 10th Centile

[WhisperGirl]

Went for a growth scan today. Baby showing as 10th centile when she was previously 50th 3 weeks ago. I wouldn't be worried if she had always been on the 10th, but that's quite a jump. None of my babies have ever shown that small. Anyone else ever had this? I'm back in a week for Doppler and cord scans to make sure the placenta is working right, then the week after for another full scan.

 

[DobbyForever]

I was never told percentiles just that my fungal height was good and baby measured well in all areas except his femur. I remember always asking if he was small. The out of the blue at my 36w appointment suddenly they tell me to expect a small baby! That he was only likely 4lbs and would maybe be around 6 if I went to full term. I was shocked! And they were spot on because I had him two weeks later and he was 5lbs. It was hard because he had to be on high calorie formula, then at 6 wish he developed an intolerance to it. I had to feed him every two hours for a while. He never learned to latch either. Even when I pumped, my bm wasn’t enough so I had to fortify it with formula. He’s always needed more calories than the average kid his age, and he’s still small. But he was born 0.02 percentile and is now 53rd.

 

[Ferry]

I don't have any experience of dropping down the percentiles, but DS was 9th percentile and just been told DD will be too. DS was induced 5 weeks early because I developed pre-eclampsia, and was only 4lbs 10oz. I know it's not the same, and it's good that they're investigating if there are any issues, but just wanted to share that I had a dinky baby - and a dinky premature one at that - and he had no problems whatsoever. Because he was so early, I had no milk, and it never came in, so he had to be formula fed, but he was just on the ordinary stuff. He had no issues and continued to thrive, and is now a happy, healthy almost 4-year-old.

Good luck with your follow up appointments x

 

[WhisperGirl]

Thanks girls, all my babies have been on the larger size. I've since worked out that they're concerned about the blood flow through the cord and that's dropped her down. I will see next week how I get on.

 

[DobbyForever]

I see. They’ll be doing weekly growth scans though? As long as they stay on top of monitoring. Hoping she’s just smaller than her siblings!

 

[WhisperGirl]

Yes weekly dopplers for the foreseeable anyhow. Then two weekly growth scans. I'll update as I get results, as it's always good for other girls in future if they have the same issue. Thanks for replying ❤

 

[WhisperGirl]

Doppler etc came back normal. Lots of water round baby. Midwife said what I also said that I thought the doctor had plotted the graph wrong and that he wasn't very good at it. The baby hasn't grown in a week (not really long enough to tell anyway) and she is measuring small, just not as small as the doctor plotted her.

 

[DobbyForever]

I’m not sure how your doctor does it, but mine does it electronically. They enter the measurement, which plots itself. There can be errors in human measurement for sure though.

I have heard of babies not growing some weeks, and as long as you still feel movement and have a growth scan next week I wouldn’t stress.

Thanks for the update!