Babies on the 90+ centile - your experiences

[sarahloumadam]

My 6 wk bf baby is mahoosive. He currently weighs 13lbs 6. Neither me or his dad are particulary tall or large. He is happy and healthy so I am not complaining but I wondered if his growth will slow down? Any similar experiences? His size was brought home to me yesterday when I went to the first post-natal group and he dwarfed all the other babies, some of whom were much older than him!

My ds was 10 lb 6 oz at birth although dh and I are of average height. However, dh is quite heavily built, and both he and his sister were over 10 lb at birth, though their parents are small. After regaining his birth weight at about a month, ds went on to gain at about 1 lb a week during the first few months. But now he is 7 years old, he is wearing age 7 clothes and is smaller than many of his contemporaries.

A big baby has a good start, but will find the size they are genetically programmed to be.

When I was 12 our class plotted our birth weights in a graph against our current weights. We could see that birth weight bore no correlation at all to weight or height at age 12.

I was very big at birth. 9lb 5oz and SIXTY cms long and continued to be very big into childhood. I was taken to see a specialist at about 3yrs old who said I would always be the tallest of my peers and get to around 6 feet adult height. By the time I went to junior school I was completely average. Just slowed down. Now 5ft 6. Neither of my parents are particularly big, mum 5ft 4 dad 5ft 10, although my mum was also a big baby.

My DH was 13lb at birth (normal delivery ). He was 2 feet log aparently (and MIL said that he had wide shoulders) and has bever been podgy. He just stayed taller than the rest.

He is now 6ft 6 and has a normal build (still with wide shoulders)

my dd and ds1 were both big babies (9lb 4 & 10lb 13) and are both just tall for their ages now but since dh and I are both tall then its no great surprise! DD is 6.6 but in 7-8 clothes and ds1 is 3.3 and in 4 year old clothes. But there's not a pick on either of them so i'm just thinking their heavy birthweights were all in their long legs!
ds2 was only 8lb 6 and he seems to be an average size although he's still only 16 months!!
dont think it matters how heavy they are whne they're born - think it matters how tall/big the parents are! i was called to school in dd reception year because the school doctor was concerned by her tallness! a quick question to the teacher might have told the doc that her parents are tall too!

That's interesting macaco. I have a similar story to contribute - my MIL kept DH's baby records and handed them over when DD was born. She is a dead ringer for him, and like him was a big fatty as a baby. He was formula fed and MIL is full of guilt that she over-fed him as he seemed to be constantly demanding milk. He was on the 98th centile, certainly for the first year or so. But by the time he was 8 he was one of the smallest in his class, and as an adult he is of pretty average build and about 5'10".

DD was exclusively bf and was just as enormous and fat as DH. She - like your baby, sarahlou, and from the sounds of it a bit like her dad - fed every 2 hours. In fact she never really went for longer than that till she was 6 months old and I started giving her solids. I was constantly being told I must be overfeeding as she fed so often and got lots of comments about how fat she was.

She is now 3 and a bit tall for her age but not dramatically, and getting gradually slimmer. She is cuddly but definitely not fat now. My theory is that both she and DH were just designed to be big strong babies & toddlers, and that it has no bearing on their eventual size.

DS2 was heavier than DS1 to start with, although neither of them were as small as average

DS1 has stayed on the 98% centile for height, and about 75% for weight all the time - he is nearly 5 now

DS2 has drifted slowly down the height centiles to 50% where he has been for a while. I think that's where he is on weight too. He's 3.

So to answer the OP- not necessarily.

Ladymuckingitup - thanks for your story!

I notice most people on here have said that their child was tall rather than fat. well, my 10mo DD is definitely both. I have similar guilt over formula feeding and the link with overweight babies, so it's good to hear that your DD's weight gain is levelling off.

The other thing that helps is looking at my own baby photos - my goodness I was a porker! And whilst I'm not exactly Kate Moss now, I don't think anyone would label me as fat.

oh that's interesting about biggies being late crawlers
DS not particularly late - started a comedy commando crawl/drag at 9 months, now at 10 he's just getting onto his knees, but all the little dainty things at playgroup crawled earlier. He refuses to sit up too. He was 10lb 5 at birth and I just looked up his book - 13lb 4 at 6 weeks. DD was v.similar, 9 14 and probably more than DS at 6 week s- the HV used to be very suspicious that I was exclusively breastfeeding - I think she thought I was slipping her doughnuts or something. Both them are also right at the top of the charts for height too, DD at 3 weighs a lot but she is by no means fat at all, she is pretty tall as well.

watch out for the 'you'll never feed her, she's too big for breastmilk alone' comments, people will be suggesting you give her formula 'top ups', baby rice and all that crap soon.

HIM not her. sorry!

Yup MrsJohnCusack have already had the "he'll be on solids soon" comments. He was 8lbs at birth so breast milk seems to be doing the job just fine!

He is actually quite lean at the moment so seems to be fattening up then shooting up. And I think he is just having another growth spurt .

Feeling lots more chilled thanks to this thread. On reflection it probably didn't help that the first person I sat next too at the post-natal group had a DD who at 19 weeks was smaller than DS! Of course she was premature but I think looking at each other's babies freaked both of us mums out!

My DS was on the 91st centile when born (9lbs 6oz). He's 5 months old now, still exclusively breastfed and slowly 'dropped' to 75th - he was 18lbs exactly on Weds at baby clinic

Oh and he is very long - about 60cm I think (hard to measure him, he's very wriggly!) His 6-9m babygros no longer do up under his bum so he must have a long torso or something. Developmentally he's fine, he loves to bear weight on his feet, can roll over and just about sit up without support.

Yes I remember some one being amazed I got ds to 18 lb 3 oz on breastmilk alone. You've done it as well, Littlebottle.

So glad to see this thread as my 7 week old girl is breastfed, eats more than the books tell you when I give her expressed milk and is close to 99th centile. I was starting to worry , but now I can relax!

My DS was 10lb 4oz born and was on the 98th centile. He is now 4 and still on 98th centile - he looks about 6 !! My hubby & and are both 6ft so there wasn't really a chance that he would be small.

Ds is and has remained on the 98th centile for height (although only 75th for weight - but still big.

Reasons big babies are great (this is only opinion not fact btw and I know I am biased

Good eaters
Good sleepers
Good temper (possibly due to the first two)
Hard to misplace

Downsides
Always in larger clothes = more expensive
Big feet = more expensive
As they grow mistaken for much older child = dirty looks when toilet training/in buggy

LOL at hard to misplace...mine screeches, no chance of losing him ;)

He is a good sleeper too, still has 1 or 2 night feeds but drops back off quickly and easily. Shame he can't drop off so easily in the daytime, with all its distractions!

My dd was 9lb12oz at birth and above 90 centile. She is now 2(last week) is 2st 2lb and 3ft1in tall 2-3 clothes (slim build though).
Plus sides

1. slept all night from 3mths due to eating larger feeds.
2. Laid back
3. Forward in all ways (could stand holding fingers at 12wks)
4. Strong and well developed and walked early (11 mths)without furniture to hold.
5. First words 12mths, 4-5 word sentences now.

Down side
1.people have higher expectations as they think they are older.

1. Bigger clothes.
2. Bigger shoes
3. Presents that are clothes regularly have

to be changed for the next size!

1. couldn't keep up with bf so changed to bottles at 8wks.

Thats my personal experience but obviously not all attributes are related to size, some are just her personality.

Another biiig vote of confidence for big bonny babies.

My ds has consistently been top of the charts for height/ weight - he was never a chubby baby but well built and very strong. He is now a skinny 3.5 yo with knobbly knees although he needs 4-6 clothes for length (and is currently in a 9-13yo wooly hat cos 4-7 just pinged off his huge bonce!!!!!) His trousers fall down as the waists are too baggy, v annoying.

DD is 21m and has been off the charts completely for over a year(125 percentile for weight I think), so the hv referred me to doc - he just wanted to check she didn't have a mahoosive head and tiny body!? She probably weighs the same as her ds now. But she is a lovely chubby happy baby. Though I have to disagree with Rantmum on the good sleeping thing as mine are not -

There is no such thing as normal - healthy, lively happy - that is what counts.

btw - both exclusive bf for 6m and beyond (ds stopped at 22m - dd hasn't yet!)

my ds1 was average size and weight when born, but immediately shot up to 98th centile and stayed there. He's now just 8 and he's enormous! wears 12 year old clothes and has size 5 feet..that said dh is 6'5 and I'm 5'9...I really wouldn't worry, he might slow down...but then again...

My ds was on the 99th percentile when he was born. He was absolutely enormous.He's now small for his age - don't know what he weighs exactly , but he is definitely smaller and slighter than his peers. Wierd. Wish he'd been just a teensy bit smaller at birth

I love big babies, they are more robust and squidgy. TBH I would be scared of handling a small baby. My smallest was 10lb 10. She is now 20 months and wears clothes for a 5 year old.

My heaviest was just over 12lb and he is now 2, skinny and is 3ft7.

The GP surgery has asked if we would like our kids referred to an endocrinologist for hormone testing.......I am over 6ft and DP is 6.6. Our kids are normal size for us. It only hits home how tall/big they are when I see them with other kids of their age.

I wouldn't worry about the centiles too much. Unless your baby suddenly goes up or done really quickly.

Tallpersonsclub uk have some good advice for parents with tall children. The main concern for me is bullying when they go to school.