What does this really mean, baby centiles? Should I worry?

[Pinkflipflop]

My ds is in the 9-25th centile for length, 9th centile for weight and 50th centile for head circ.

The HV was very vague about what this means.

Can someone explain what this means and what it says about his future development?

Taken from: www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/baby-screening.aspx

" Understanding your child?s chart

Your child?s growth will be recorded on a centile chart. This allows you to see how their height and weight compare to other children of the same age. Boys and girls have different charts because boys are on average heavier and taller and their growth pattern is slightly different.
Since May 2009, the centile charts in your PCHR or red book have been based on measurements taken by the World Health Organization from healthy, breastfed children with non-smoking parents from a range of countries.

They represent the pattern of growth that healthy children should follow, whether they're breastfed or formula fed. They are suitable for children from all ethnic backgrounds.

Centile lines

The curves on the chart, or centile lines, show the range of weights and heights (or lengths) of most children. If your child?s height is on the 25th centile, for example, this means that if you lined up 100 children of the same age in order from the shortest to the tallest, your child would be number 25 and 75 children would be taller.

It is normal for a child?s weight or height to be anywhere within the centile lines on the chart.

The centile lines show roughly the pattern of growth expected in weight and length, but these don't usually follow one centile line exactly. Weight usually stays within one centile space (the space between two centile lines).

All babies are different, and your baby?s growth chart won?t look exactly the same as another baby?s (even their brother's or sister's)."

Hope that helps a bit?

How old is he? How tall are you and your DH? My boys have been around 75th centile since birth but I'm 6ft tall and they were 8lb's + when they were born.

My eldest was all over the place on the centiles, for example at 10 months old he was off the bottom of the chart for weight (well below 3rd centile), 9th centile for length and 60th for head circumference. At 18 he was 60th for height and 9th for weight - about 8.5 stone and almost 6'

He's perfectly healthy and active, just very, very slim.

If you got 100 babies and lined them up he'd the 9th lightest, some where between the 9 and 25th longest - at the moment. Don't know how old your DS is but can change a lot from birth.

Doesn't really mean anything. At some point you Ds will start to track one of these lines. Only reall an issue if they drop over 2 lines. However as you Ds is light they might be a little concerned if he drops one. ( just that though, only concerned, don't panic)

My Ds Started life on the 25th for weight, jumped to the 75th by 2 weeks and is now on 91st for both weight and height, has been since 6 months ( now 3) and follows that.

Ds 2 was 98th at birth, dropped to 50th and now tracks 75th weight.

There were no problems or concerns with either, they just took a while to settle.

Hope that helps

He is 18 weeks

I'm five foot six and dh is six foot two.

Ds was 5lbs 12oz at birth

If the HV was worried they would have said. Anywhere within the centiles is normal.

My DS2 has always been tiny on 9th centiles for height and weight and because me and DH are tall he was checked out for thyroid issues but came up fine and the conclusion was he is just small. I'm sure he'll end up tall due to his genes.

Don't worry!

The centile chart is based on healthy babies. Being lower down does not mean there is a problem - it just means smaller than average. Half of babies are smaller than average. Some babies are born bigger than they are genetically destined to be so they drop down a bit from their birth centile. Some babies are low birth weight but actually they are genetically destined to be larger so they might catch it up faster. Your DS was a lower than average birth weight - was he born at 40 weeks? Anyway they aree all different. If he is happy and healthy and gaining weight each month then don't worry about the chart. My DS is very average for weight, a little longer than average but he has a massive head on the 90th centile! I tell myself that his head is bigger because he is very brainy :)

5lbs 12 is a dinky little baby, no wonder he's on 9th centiles. A friend of mine had a baby drop off the centiles at one point, he's always been healthy and developed perfectly normally. It's only really a problem if they start dropping down and keep dropping down the centiles.

I don't think you need to worry mine was 50th head, 9th weight but bounced around a bit and 9th length at birth but went up to 25th.

DD2 at 2 weeks was 25th centile for weight and 91st for head.

It probably means nothing but with her she grew into her head a bit of you see what I mean

The head centiles is a bit difficult. There are only a couple of centimeters of difference from lowest to highest. THis means a small error in measurement could make a big difference to the percentile you find yourself on. I look at these figures with a great deal of skepticism. As a PP said, each baby's growth pattern will be different.