Should you put a 3 month old baby on a diet?! Starting to worry after percentile jump!

[MotherofKitties]

Hi all,

So my DD is 15 weeks and she was born full term at 6lb 11oz and was 9th percentile, and we’ve been weighing her every two weeks and she’s stayed right in the middle of the 9th percentile. Weighed her today and she’s gained 2lb in Just under two weeks, making her jump from the 9th percentile to the 50th!

Our HV said we her last visit (6 weeks) that if she jumped more than 2 percentiles/lines either way we would have a problem on our hands; well she’s jumped nearly 3 lines!

DD is now exclusively FF after refusing to combi-feed after 8 weeks where she did BF (had various issues with latching which meant I was never able to EBF ).

Did anyone else’s baby jump in weight similar to this? Was it an issue? There’s all these articles saying it means she’s twice as likely to be obese and I’ve started panicking!

She’s a really happy, good natured baby and I don’t use the bottle to placate her or anything, so I don’t know how I would restrict her milk intake even if I wanted too! Would you take her to the doctors or just wait a few weeks to see how her weight goes? She’s my first so I’m new to monitoring a babies weight!

Babies self regulate with food and can only eat what their stomach will hold. A baby should never be put on a diet, she'll just be hungry and unhappy.

Ds was born below the tenth percentile and by six months was sitting on the 50th percentile. Since then, now he's ten months, he consistently sits at the 75th percentile for weight. I just don't think he grew to the capacity he should have done while I was carrying him.

Personally, I wouldn't worry

No don’t put her on a diet. She’s tiny.
Being in the 50th percentile means that she is pretty average for her age.

Keep feeding on demand. She should be gaining weight and from the second percentile I would expect it to be acceslarated.

Enjoy your lovely little one.

Ignore percentiles. Ignore HV eho make “problems” from it. Every baby is different, they shouldn’t be basing your babies development on averages, wuite frankly.

Mine jumped from 2nd percentile at birth to 90th at her 12 week check. HV didn’t bat an eyelid. She is a perfectly healthy weight now at 3 years old. Honestly no weight issues.

Your baby is not overfed. If they are happy then do not put on a diet.

Look at how you are bottle feeding her - are you tipping it down her so she’s no choice but to drink it or are you sitting her more upright and only just tilting it so she can choose to stop when she wants?

My DD jumped 3 centiles lines. Had her weighed today and she’s perfectly fine and happy and no one is worrying about her weight.

Try not to worry! It will all even out in the end!
Don’t reduce her milk intake, she’ll only be unhappy. Babies don’t care about centile lines, she’ll only eat when she is hungry.

I'd ask the HV what sort of problems she thinks arise from a baby growing a lot - I've never heard of such a thing, pretty unlikely to be gigantism, isn't it?

I read somewhere that birth weight is an indication of placenta function rather than anything else, which makes sense to me. I was an extreme example but I had problems with blood flow through the placenta. My baby was delivered 6 weeks early because she seemed to be struggling and had fallen off the bottom of the growth charts - below the 0.4th centile. After a few weeks of stabilising she has consistently tracked the 25th centile. She found her line, jumping several centiles in the process. She's now three and has more or less tracked that line ever since.

No way should she be on a diet. No, no, no!

Watching with interest. DD is the same age and has jumped from 25th to 50th and is still gaining. I tried putting less in her bottle for a couple of feeds which only resulted in a hangry baby! i know 50th isn’t exactly massive but my other DC was just below 9th so I’m used to littlies!

I’m sure there’s nothing to be worried about.

What was her height centile at birth and now? If she was 50th on height but 9th on weight then she’s really only adjusting herself in line iyswim?

No diet. Feed baby as much as they want. Growing is hungry work. Also I wouldn't be concerned AT ALL about jumps up in percentile, especially for a baby that was 6lb odd when born.

She's just catching up.

@rainbowandraindrops67 do you know what babies do when they don't want extra milk? They throw it up. What a really odd reply to make. How you hold them when feeding makes no difference because the baby has to suck the milk out, she's not drinking out of a bucket.

Thank you for replying so quickly! This makes me feel a lot better!

I said to my DH that surely if a baby was over fed they would spit up what they can’t take...?

Our DD is always being referred to as being a ‘little’ baby by friends and family because she’s quite dinky and petite, but I’m quite small anyway so like you’ve said, maybe she grew as much as she could in me and is now reaching her proper size as she’s getting a bit older...?

Her weight hasn’t even crossed my mind as being an issue until today, I could just tell she was putting on weight and as she’s a happy little thing I didn’t think weight gain could even be an issue

Dd at birth was in 5th centile (5 weeks prem). She's now 10 weeks and as of today in 91st. No joke. Gp today weighed her and was only positive. Said she's doing great no concerns. They are pleased with her weight gain etc. So I wouldn't worry. And no defenetily don't put him on a "diet".

I don't have a clue about these percentile things, it doesn't seem to be an issue where I am.

But no way would I restrict a baby's milk and I can't see it's anything to go to the doctors about.

Just smile and nod!

No! Babies need calories to grow and develop, they do both at incredible weights. My DD was 25th at birth, and is past the 98th now. But she’s also perfectly in proportion with her height now, which is likely to be the case with your dd too

Fuck's sake. That's why I stopped seeing the HV - stupid 'advice' like that.

My son was massive - rolls of fat massive. He was 11lb, 2ft when born and just blew their mind. He fed on demand and there was NO WAY you'd get food down him if he wasn't hungry. He was never sick from overfeeding and was above 99.6th centile until I finally stopped going because they had nothing useful to say.

He's nearly 5 now and in Reception he's not fat but he's taller than most of the year 1s.

Just feed your baby on demand, care for them and they'll be fine.

Madlizzy is right, at this stage babies self-regulate, they'll only drink until they're full. If you think about it, babies don't really move much, so it makes sense they'd pack on the weight a bit. It soon drops off once they're mobile!

How would you even put her on a diet? She’ll just cry if you take the bottle away while she’s still hungry won’t she?

DS went from 2.7kg at birth (premature) to 4.5kg at the six week check. I was a bit horrified, especially when I read all those sodding BabyCenter articles saying things like “by six months old, your baby will almost have doubled in weight!” (DS had basically doubled his weight in six weeks - how fucking heavy was he going to be by six months?).

He’s been pretty steady since then though, and weight and height are both around 75th venture so he isn’t too podgy. I think weaning is the time to worry about portion control.

Jesus christ people. Don't limit what you feed your baby. Some of these replies are worrying. If your baby eats it, they want it and need it.

The way I understand it, birth weight is affected by the mother/placenta, and then after birth, genes kick in a lot. My 75th centile at birth 5mo has been doing the opposite - gaining weight slower and slower and now sits on the 25th centile line, but is still growing (albeit slowly), and healthy. He's built like his dad, though - long (75th!) and skinny.

Re PP; sometimes she lies down when drinking, other times more sitting up. She’s quite clear when she doesn’t want milk, turns her head away or starts chuntering because she wants to play instead!

Also, we never got her height measured. We asked when she was born but the MW and hospital staff said they don’t do it anymore because it’s so difficult to gauge properly, and the HV said the same at all the standard appointments we had, so I don’t actually know how long she was or how long she is now!

My DS was born on the 75th percentile and was also formula fed. He loved his milk and by the time he was 4 months old he was on the 99th percentile. Everyone told me to cut back but he was genuinely hungry and would scream until he was fed.

I ignored them and sure enough once he was weaned and active he evened out and was back on 75th percentile since just before he was 1. Now he's a very fussy toddler and I'm having the opposite problem!

baffled Why would you even do that?

My HV told me to stop feeding my 9mo DS at night because he was above the top line on the chart. I totally ignored her because his height was also above the top line (which the HV didn't even look at). His height is in line with his weight, therefore he's in proportion. Plus there was no way on earth I was dealing with a screaming hungry baby in the middle of the night (I note that the HV didn't volunteer to actually come and do what she was asking me to do!).

He's perfectly fine, he's still tall and his weight is in line with that. He's come down a bit from above the top line now but is tracking the 95th percentile. He's an active, normal weight toddler.

Please seek more opinions if your HV talks nonsense.