4 month olds (slowed) weight gain...

[Abbey08]

FTM Question/Concern… My baby had his 4 month appointment today. He was born 7lbs 9oz and today weighed in at 14 lbs 12oz. At each of his prior doctor’s appointments his weight gain was great and better than expected… Today the doctor said his weight gain has slowed down this past month and she wants to re-check him again in 1 month. He is formula fed only. Of course this has me wondering what I am doing wrong, what I need to change, etc… He started daycare 1 month ago so that also has me wondering if he is eating less at daycare then he did with me when I stayed home for 3 months. His daycare is awesome and there is no worry of them not feeding him as much as he needs. Should I be worried of his slowed weight gain? We (parents) are smaller/short (5'2") and dad is on the slender side and always has been.

 

[Kitteh_Kat]

I want to say DD's weight gain slowed around that point, but she was never a big baby to begin with (6 lb 8 oz at 41 weeks). As long as she stayed along a similar curve and met her milestones the doctor was happy. I was home with her and did all of the bottles, so I know she wasn't missing out or getting less than usual.

I've also read that Mom's weight can be a good indicator of how the baby will turn out, and I've spent most of my life on the smaller side, so it seems to be true for me (and this baby is already measuring on the small side).

Hopefully you can get some answers in a month! Good luck

 

[MindUtopia]

Have they plotted a centile curve for him? Generally, they want to see that babies grow on average about the same rate over time, but there will be slower periods in growth just before a big jump. I think there is often a big jump around 4 months, so it could be he's just coming up to that. But really, it's all about the average, so if you have a centile chart for him, you can see how his growth has followed the curve over time. Most babies stay on average around about the same (e.g. if born at 50th centile, they are still 50th centile at 4 months), but some do change (my daughter was born at I think 25th centile and was around the 60th at 4 months, she lost a lot of weight after birth, down to 2nd centile, so the rebound from that brought her up above where she had been). I think the only concern would be if there is a huge drop (e.g. born at 70th centile and then at 30th at 4 months suddenly). I would expect he may be eating less at daycare. I know my daughter did take less when she was away from me to begin with. If he's feeding on demand as much as he wants and whenever he wants it (I would just reiterate with your daycare that this is in fact what they're doing), you probably don't have anything to worry about and whatever up and down there is will even out eventually.

EDIT: Actually, I just dug out my centile chart and had a look. 7lbs 9 oz would have made him just below 25th centile at birth and 14 lbs 12 oz would make him round about 40th centile at 4 months, so he's actually gone up rather than down in centiles. That's perfect and not something your doctor should be stressing you about. If they have concerns in the future, tell them to be plotting the centile curves and make sure they're doing it correctly. They should be doing it anyway. I know here they do it in our children's health record book, which we keep at home with us, so we always see it, but they should at least be doing it for their own records, even if they aren't given it to you.

 

[Rainbow82]

DS weight gain slowed down between 4 and 5.5 months and now at 7 months it has slowed again, both times this has correlated with a huge growth spurt in terms of length/height. My DS weighed exactly the same as yours at 4 months and was slightly bigger when he was born, 8.1lb. It doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about.