Babies weight?

[VickyLou]

I had my little girl weighed yesterday, she was 20lbs 10 oz. She is 7 months old? I keep being told she's oberweight but then told I'm not feeding her enough. How? They never help when I question them about it. What does yours weigh? Is her weight ok?

 

[halullat]

My son was roughly 23lbs at 7 months, we were only ever told that his weight was great. He is though very tall and on a higher centile height than weight (off the charts height and top of the chart weight) and never had any rolls (not that rolls are a bad thing!). Is your daughter bottle fed? As it can be easier to overfeed a bottle fed baby, although I'm sure your LO is absolutely fine! xx

 

[SoupDragon]

She sounds just fine to me!

My DD at 8.5 months is 21lb 12oz, she was something like 20lb 13oz at 7.5 months. She's always been near the top of the centiles for height and weight, and no-one (professionally) has ever said anything negative about it. She is bottlefed due to tongue tie, and gets both expressed breastmilk and formula. Nobody has ever suggested to me that I'm overfeeding her. She looks perfectly in proportion and isn't even particularly chubby.

Have the health visitors been writing in your red book when you go to clinic? If they have (and they should, if they're giving you advice), and that information is conflicting, I'd request a visit from 'your' health visitor to go through the advice given and to discuss your concerns about what has been said. She can't be both underfed and too heavy, that's total nonsense they're telling you. If she is more or less following her centile line, she's fine. I say more or less because my LO started out on 99.6, dropped progressively to about 86, and is currently about 94 or so, and that's been deemed perfectly ok.

 

[VickyLou]

Yes she is bottle fed, she only has 4 6 ounce bottles at day 24ounces over the day and then she will have 4 ounce about midnight but this isn't all the time. She is also on solids, she has dinner and tea, I give her 3 teaspoons in a bowl of puréed veg and then she will have half a pouch of puréed fruit. I haven't started with breakfast yet cause I'm concerned about her weight. I'm concerned cause she has been gaining roughly 1 pound every 3 weeks but this last 3 weeks she has gained 1pound 10 ounces. My health visitor 3 weeks ago told me she was overweight but they dont do her height at our clinics so I don't know if she's ok for her height. I'm hoping she will get on the move soon so she will lose abit. Another thing I'm concerned about as she is showing no signs of moving
Sorry girl I'm probably just being silly.

Thank you for your replies x

 

[SoupDragon]

I've no idea about puree as I'm doing blw but it doesn't seem like loads. And my girl has just dropped down from 40 oz of milk a day to 25-30, now she's taking in a substantial amount of food. She's been on 40 oz since about 5 months old. I was concerned that was too much but I was told it's fine, and she's very good at self-regulating. They all are!

Is she following her centile line on the chart, or is she shooting up through them? The charts aren't the be-all-and-end-all but they can be a useful indication of whether a baby is gaining appropriately. If she's sticking to roughly the same area of the chart over time, there's not really any problem. If she's gone from say 50th to 99.6th over the space of a few weeks at this age, then yes, you'd be concerned.

They don't do height at our clinics either, I think the next time it'll be checked is at the 8-12 month check? I do a rough approximation of her height myself, e.g. the other week I noticed standing up the top of her head is level with the underside of our kitchen table, so I measured that I know they're meant to be measured lying down with a special measuring tool when they're under 2, but it gives me a rough idea, lol.

As for not moving, she's still so young, it's perfectly normal to not be crawling etc at her age. They are all so different. Mine is walking now, my friend's LG started walking at 11 months, and another friends baby boy didn't walk til 15 months. All three are normal, happy, perfectly healthy children. There's no reason to worry about motor milestones so early...crawling isn't even on the list because not all babies crawl...some just get up and cruise one day

I really would ask to have a detailed chat with someone, and maybe get someone you trust to be with you to support you, your OH or your mum or a good friend who knows your baby well. It sounds to me like the HV's 'advice' has really shaken your confidence and worried you, and you need it to be cleared up so you can continue doing the fabulous job you're clearly doing.

 

[VickyLou]

I've no idea about puree as I'm doing blw but it doesn't seem like loads. And my girl has just dropped down from 40 oz of milk a day to 25-30, now she's taking in a substantial amount of food. She's been on 40 oz since about 5 months old. I was concerned that was too much but I was told it's fine, and she's very good at self-regulating. They all are!

Is she following her centile line on the chart, or is she shooting up through them? The charts aren't the be-all-and-end-all but they can be a useful indication of whether a baby is gaining appropriately. If she's sticking to roughly the same area of the chart over time, there's not really any problem. If she's gone from say 50th to 99.6th over the space of a few weeks at this age, then yes, you'd be concerned.

They don't do height at our clinics either, I think the next time it'll be checked is at the 8-12 month check? I do a rough approximation of her height myself, e.g. the other week I noticed standing up the top of her head is level with the underside of our kitchen table, so I measured that I know they're meant to be measured lying down with a special measuring tool when they're under 2, but it gives me a rough idea, lol.

As for not moving, she's still so young, it's perfectly normal to not be crawling etc at her age. They are all so different. Mine is walking now, my friend's LG started walking at 11 months, and another friends baby boy didn't walk til 15 months. All three are normal, happy, perfectly healthy children. There's no reason to worry about motor milestones so early...crawling isn't even on the list because not all babies crawl...some just get up and cruise one day

I really would ask to have a detailed chat with someone, and maybe get someone you trust to be with you to support you, your OH or your mum or a good friend who knows your baby well. It sounds to me like the HV's 'advice' has really shaken your confidence and worried you, and you need it to be cleared up so you can continue doing the fabulous job you're clearly doing.

Thank you soup dragon for such a long and detailed response. I appreciate it. Wow 40 oz of milk, my little one has never had this much, I'm constantly being told my some health professional to scale back on her milk. I remember when she was 3 half months old and she was having 5 ounce bottles and a doctor at the hospital told me to only give her 4 ounces no more even if she wants more. (You have to be cruel to be kind apparently) so my fears started there.
I am trying to start BLW now but cause she used to food I feel bad and end up giving her puree aswel. It was easier for me to give puree cause she has severe acid reflux and she's allergic to cows milk protein and potentially wheat and gluten (I'm waiting on the diagnoses) so I can buy jars of fruit and veg and that's that rather than prepare something at home and she not like it. We are waiting to see a dietician to help with weaning the referral went through in March and we have only just got an appointment through for August. Stupid really when she will be 9 months old then.

As for the chart, they tell me she's following as she should? To be honest I don't quite understand it. She's on the 90th line now, 3 weeks ago she as in the 75th, surely that's a big jump? There was no health visitor available to discuss it with this week when we went to clinic.
Thats a good idea to measure something that they are similar height to her. I think I'll get the tape measure out later

And crawling, I don't expect her to crawl to be honest, she hates tummy time, ways has so I can't see her crawling at all. I figured she might do a bum shuffle or something? She's always wanting to be on her feet though so maybe this is why she won't move much, I have a walker for her and she zooms around with that so maybe she will just randomly get up and walk like you say. I dunno I just get abit worried cause you read about all these miles stones for her age and she isn't doing some of them or kids the same age are doing things she isn't doing and it just concerns me cause of the things the health professionals say. I should really just trust my instincts and forget milestones and charts etc. The doctors have failed her all her life so far (long story) so why I hang on their every word is beyond me!!
Note to self stop worrying and follow my gut.

Thanks again soup kitchen. You have made me feel better about things.

 

[halullat]

Loads of babies aren't crawling at 7 months! Don't worry that she isn't mobile yet at all! My brother went straight from rolling to walking. My son walked at 10 months and my friend's son is starting to walk at 18 months, the milestone ages are very broad and there is a wide range of normal.

If you still feed her her bottle feeds, maybe try paced bottle feeding. I'm useless at amounts as I bf and did blw but it doesn't sound like huge amounts to me.

I remember a similar thing happening to a woman at one of the playgroups I go to, her son suddenly jumped up on the chart and she was told he was overweight and it really stressed her out. Fundamentally though, I'm sure that once she starts moving she'll slim down if she isn't in proportion height/weight wise, and she may well be in perfect proportion right now xx

 

[SoupDragon]

Remember also that they grow in spurts, not evenly and steadily. There might be a lot of growth one month and not so much the next. My DD is definitely doing this.

If she has issues with reflux and allergies, it makes sense to do what you're doing, and I wouldn't worry about her being overweight at all. She's within the 'normal' limits on the charts, and sounds like she's doing really well in spite of her tummy problems.

They did say to me early on that if there were serious concerns about DD's weight, they'd measure her height as well to see if she was in proportion. The fact that they haven't measured your DD's height suggests that it's just someone's opinion, not an actual concern, that she's too heavy. The HV this week confidently told me 'oh, once she starts crawling her weight gain will slow'...DD promptly got up and toddled across the room. The HV didn't know what to say, lol.

It sounds like your DD is nice and active if she's using her walker to get about, and she will bum-shuffle/crawl/walk just as soon as she's ready, and she probably will slim down once she's on the go, but some babies are just towards the higher end of the scale and there's nothing wrong with that. My DD was 10lb 2oz at birth and I don't know where she gets it (apart from that I probably had undiagnosed GD). I was a teeny peanut as a baby so I assumed I'd have a peanut too. She's definitely more of a pudding

Some HVs tell you one thing, others will tell you the complete opposite. I think their own opinions come into it a lot more than they should! Your instincts are telling you what to do, so go with that. I hope you get some definite answers about her possible allergies, and some better treatment from the doctors (and health visitors, too!).

 

[sethsmummy]

sounds fine to me hun. some babies are big and some babies are small. that really doesnt sound overly big. do you know what centile she is on? unless shes rocketed off the charts then i dont see any problem at all.

my little is 6 months and 15lb 4oz. my middle child was around teh same and my eldest was around 13lb at 7 months but he was tiny

 

[sarah34]

My lo went up from 75th line to nearly the 90th line when he was 10 months. He had just started crawling and the health visitor told me the same thing! He was overweight but then when I told her he has 3 meals a day she said we need to give him 2 snacks as well!

I had my lo weighed last week at nearly 13 months and he has gone back down to the 75th line, I'm guessing this is due to being more mobile, starting to walk etc.

What I'm saying is don't worry, like us their weight will go up and down depending on how much they are moving and eating. Xx

 

[MindUtopia]

At 7 months, your LO would be just above the 91st centile mark, which is perfectly fine. "Overweight" would be above the 100th centile, but anything in between is perfectly normal and healthy.

 

[VickyLou]

Internet has been down so wasn't able to get on here. Thank you all for your replies. You have all made me feel so much better about her weight.
I've attached a picture of her weight chart since birth.
She has started pulling herself up on me over the last few days so I think she will skip crawling and bum shuffling and go straight to walking. My lazy baby that's happy to just sit in one place instead of exploring. Thanks again ladies. I think I'll be ignoring the health visitors from now on. xx