Are breastfed babies smaller?

[SleepingStandingUp]

So perfectly friendly lady asks how old my babies are. Her and her DP we're trying to decide. Both suprised they're 11 months as they guessed older.
I confirm yes they are indeed big, they're now in 18-24 months.
She says they're probably bigger than her 3 to.
I do the polite chuckle how how big they are indeed.
Then she says it's likely because she breastfed hers and breastfed babies are smaller

I wasn't quick enough to tell her I bf them (I didn't but I resent the insinuation that I didn't because I have twins when plenty of twin mom's do) or to really say anything because she then left.

But firstly is that even true?
Was she just defensive because I have beastly babies?
Was she shaming me for over feeding them with an evil bottle?
Why do I even care?

My breastfed boys were huge! Double cream in my boobies!

Some babies are just bigger!

Nah its rubbish, my son was breastfed and off the chart in length (although he is quite slim). Most my friends have bf and there is a whole range. It's almost like it doesn't really matter or something :)

2 girls- one Breast one bottle - they each followed the same weight more or less!
The only difference now is my younger one (breast) is now a lot taller but that’s more each one taking after different parents

Don't know the facts but I have an exclusively BF baby who is currently on 98% percentile

I breastfed all mine, one followed the 50th centile line for weight as long as I continued to weigh him, one shot up to the 90th within a few weeks of birth and stayed there, the third I can't even remember because at that point I was a "he is alive and well you say, right thanks see you in six weeks bye" type mum and only found his red book when a vaccine was due.

All three of mine exclusively breast fed and all three 98th percentile for height and Weight. I think it’s more genetics than anything.

I've read that breastfed babies gain faster in the first 3 months but thereafter, formula fed babies gain faster so would (in most cases) be bigger. There's apparently two different percentile charts because of this difference. I was surprised because I've never noticed either way. Don't pay the woman any attention though. All babies are different and as long as they're healthy, it does matter what size they are or how they're fed.

DS was a right chunk, he was bf, 9lb 2oz at birth, and was 98th centile right though (stopped bf him when he was 2). He was still fairly rounded until he reached about 5.5 years and now at 6.5 he’s lengthening out and looking really lean (apart from his lovely chubby cheeks which he still has and which I shall miss tremendously when those go!)

DD was 8lb at birth, and then dropped 2 centiles. She was also ebf. I was a bit concerned as I’d read that this would trigger some kind of referral but the HV wasn’t bothered - she was perfectly healthy, meeting milestones, and when you looked at her you could see she was in proportion. At 3 she still is tiny. She seems to have the genes of the women in DH’s family, who are all around 5’2’’ (I’m 5’7).

I had a ff baby who struggled to gain weight, even though she was born big. She was a smidgen too long for her weight (75th centile height and just under 25th centile weight). She is still skinny now and extremely healthy. Never really caught viruses when everyone else did. She had to be bottle fed due to some serious issues after birth, although we mix fed for a couple of months. I felt SO guilty about it though.

Also had an EBF baby who was and is huge. He was a fat baby, who gained loads, having been born a bit smaller than dd. He is now tall and slim, but heavy.

Why do people do this? "Of course I breastfed mine so blah blah blah". I used to get it from all sorts of randoms from my age to pensioners! I guess, being kind, it might be an attempt at bonding maybe? Dunno. It is a sensitive subject. My best friend works on a postnatal ward and she says she sees so many women killing themselves trying to breast feed. Unless you've desperately tried and failed, I think it might be hard to understand, but I remember it with dd. In hindsight I was being a twat. If we had another baby now, I'd be a lot more relaxed if it didn't work out through no fault of my own.

Oh my Ebf baby I fed till 12 months FWIW.

I have 4 children. All of them apart from 1 was breastfed.
I couldn’t feed one of my boys because of a horrendous break up with their dad when he was 4 days old. I wasn’t eating enough and felt like my world had fallen apart even though I had a beautiful new baby. I couldn’t therefore produce enough milk for him and he was therefore bottle fed. He is 14 now and to this day, is smaller than all the others and if any illnesses about, he catches them. I don’t know for sure, whether it was lack of my own milk or he was just meant to be this way.
But I am always full of guilt because of it.

It’s genetics usually.

Breastfed both of mine for 2+ years, both boys were under 7.5 lbs at birth and both are long-limbed and always been in the low percentiles of weight. Husband and I are both slim with long arms and legs. They’re 3 and 5 and I fear for the teen years because they’re constantly eating (like their father) but also don’t stop moving either.

I thought it was true and that's why they changed the centiles charts a while ago, because breastfed babies were "underweight" compared to the bottled babies that were used to create the centiles charts.

Anecdotally, I bf both of mine, one was light and the other heavy. Both perfectly healthy but DS2 (the heavy baby) is calmer and was better at weaning (DS1 had no teeth for and no interest in chewing)

*bottle fed
*for ages

(neither DC slept well yesterday!)

Based purely on my own observations so not in the least scientific I think bf babies do tend not necessarily to be smaller but not to have the rounded look that ff babies have, I can't describe it properly but they seem to have finer features and a less "chubby" look

I'm sure there is actually loads of proper research that would actually tell you the answer

Generally yes, mine were really tiny to the extent nobody believed they were school aged when they started

@luanmapo

I have 4 children. All of them apart from 1 was breastfed. I couldn’t feed one of my boys because of a horrendous break up with their dad when he was 4 days old. I wasn’t eating enough and felt like my world had fallen apart even though I had a beautiful new baby. I couldn’t therefore produce enough milk for him and he was therefore bottle fed. He is 14 now and to this day, is smaller than all the others and if any illnesses about, he catches them. I don’t know for sure, whether it was lack of my own milk or he was just meant to be this way. But I am always full of guilt because of it.

I know it must feel like it but it won't be the milk otherwise all FF kids would be poorly. It's just a shot coincidence designed to make you question your parenting. You got and him through when your world was torn upside down, you did good x

If it's true at population level then that's just the way it is. However, my DDs were both breastfed and were both top of the centiles all the way - especially for height. They're now both 5'10'' (and DD2 has grown recently at almost 18).

Out of my 3 the one I successfully bf for 15 months was (and still is) the biggest out of them all at every stage so far.

I think it’s a bit of an old wives tale. My dm and mil both used to say the same about my two breastfed babies only it was very much a criticism. Apparently we were all bottlefed and we were never that tiny. There was also lots of ‘that poor baby looks hungry again’ ‘how can you be sure he’s getting enough? You need to top up with a proper bottle’.

It really doesn’t matter as long as they are healthy.

I should add, neither of them say a word now 14 yo ds is a massive rugby playing bruiser.

BF babies develop slightly differently and tend to be leaner with stronger lower leg muscles. I think they have different growth charts available for breast fed versus formula fed babies when they monitor the growth but I'm not sure health visitors use them.

In the end the differences even out by the time they've been on solid food for a few months.

I've got a very small baby (various reasons) and it's hard not to feel defensive when there's another child at the park etc who's the same age but much bigger.

Because only a tiny % of women in the UK bf past something like 6 weeks, if I was feeling defensive I can imagine speculating that bf might contribute to size differences, since statistically bf babies are smaller.

I say that having had one bf whopper and one bf tiny one.

My breastfed son didn't get the 'smaller' memo - 8lb 3oz when he was born, no drop in weight ever

This was my third son I was home in about 8 hours after he was born, MW came the next day and he hadn’t lost any of his birth weight the little porker!

He’s a tiny little bundle of muscle now at 9.

The health visitor at weigh in always told me not too worry as BF babies tend not to have the excess weight a FF baby has and that a we have lost sight of what a healthy baby weight is.

I was just happy he was on his healthy line, try not to compare and try to ignore comments that upset you.