Should I be concerned?

[Ragirl]

My daughter is 5 months old, and the short story is, I am wondering if I should be concerned about her weight. Mind you, my son is and always has been in the 90+ percentile for weight and height, so the other end of the spectrum is new to me. So- 5 months old and she weighs 13.0 lb/5.9kg. She was a sizeable baby to begin with- 8.14lbs/3.7kg but seems to have gained little since then. I looked at the WHO growth charts (since she is breastfed) and this places her now in the 1-3 percentile. As a rule, I don't believe in putting too much weight in growth charts since they are just a generalization of the "average" baby. But her height is in the 75% and in the past 2 weeks she has dropped .7oz for unknown reasons. I hate to take her back to the doc after just 2 weeks (when she was seen two weeks ago she was in the 25%) and look like some hysterical mother but I don't want to ignore a potential problem. Just wondering what others experiences of this are and what you think. I wasn't so concerned when both her height and weight were at 50% because she just seemed to be an overall tiny baby. But now that their is such a disparity in her height and weight, I wonder if I should be concerned.

 

[sam's mum]

If you are concerned I'd take her back to the doctors to put your mind at rest. Very few babies follow the growth charts perfectly - Sam was big when he was born (8lb 13oz) but dropped down to 25th when he was a few months old. He's now back up at 50th. He's never had any obvious changes in feeding or anything either. If she seems happy, lively and has no health problems, she's still having lots of wet and dirty nappies I wouldn't worry too much but don't feel bad taking her back to the doctors - I'm sure they won't think that you're worrying over nothing when they are the ones who seem to place so much importance on the growth charts.

Hope everything's ok x

 

[sam#3]

I would go back to the doctors thats what they are there for. Its always better to check things you are worried about.

 

[Ragirl]

Thanks to both of you. And cute pics Sam's Mum and congrats on the new pg- seems like just yesterday you had Sam!!