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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Not the usual weight problems...Anyone in the same boat?

14 replies

Downtowngirl · 23/01/2008 15:26

Anyone in the same boat or have some advice? I know I probably shouldn't be anxious about this but I am!

I'm a first time mum with a lovely DD of nearly three months. I was very keen to breastfeed exclusively and, probably like anyone, a bit anxious that it wouldn't work out.

I was amazed when DD did not lose any of her birth weight and put on 8 ounces by 14 days. She was born 7lb 8 oz. She has continued to put on enviable amounts of weight and has now shot from just below the 50th percentile to right on the 95th percentile. Last time I went to the HV, which was 11 weeks, she was 14lb 5 oz and outgrowing her 3-6 month babygrows. Worrying that she was overweight, although everyone I have ever spoken to on the topic says you can't overfeed a BF baby, I asked to measure her length, and she was 62cm, which is also on the 95th percentile. The HV said she guaranteed that DD was going to be over 6 foot tall, as she was such a big baby.

This would be all very well if I or my boyfriend were enormous, but at 5' 2" and small framed I am the tallest woman in either of our families! My partner is about 5'8" and the tallest known relative of either of us is a dead great grandfather who was about 5'11"...

What does anybody think? Is this just a very extended growth spurt? Am I going to have a daughter who is a foot taller than me? Am I drastically overfeeding her? Or is there some weird growing disorder where she never stops growing that I have never heard of?

I'd really appreciate any ideas at all on the subject...

Thank you!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

JingleyJen · 23/01/2008 15:34

It was the same here - DS2 born 7lb1oz rocketed through the centiles - jokes from HV's about me serving gold top - me worried about growth dissorders!
He was Big!
He was 21lb at 24 weeks I thought it would never end! but I stopped taking him to the clinic - but his weight slowed - he had various bouts of colds and coughs and ear infections whilst we were trying to wean him and he didn't take to food very well. Had started to crawl and move around.

I then had the opposite worry because I decided to have him weighed on his birthday and he has 23lb - Slowed massively

As long as your little one is feeding happily then I really wouldn't worry about it.

Well done you obviously are getting on well!

3missys · 23/01/2008 15:36

First of all R-E-L-A-X.... I was quite anxious first time round about EVERYTHING but second time around I can see my huge big worry mountins were silly little molehills..... I am sure your DD will even out and that she is going through a growth spurt at the moment. Just as long as she is happy I would say BF as normal as see how she is when you wean her.

Twiglett · 23/01/2008 15:39

your HV, like many of them unfortunately, is a bit of an idiot

you cannot judge how big a baby will be as an adult based on their centile growth chart as a baby

there's some rule of thumb that approx 2 x height as a 2 year old roughly works though

BF babies have different growth patterns .. sounds like yours is doing extremely well .. good for you .. well done

Just think, if she was a boy, you would be so proud .. but 'cos she's a girl it feels slightly different doesn't it .. how odd and how stereotypical too (I do this, I have one of each and am not complimented when people tell me how big dd is even though she's in perfect proportion)

I think this is a good early growth spurt .. it is very unlikely she will be 6 ft

Twiglett · 23/01/2008 15:40

and height and weight is perfectly in proportion too .. so it isn't a weight problem

smartiejake · 23/01/2008 15:45

Nothing to worry about.

Both my dds put on lots of weight in the time after birth when most are losing. dd2 particularly went , like yours, from the 50th to the 95percentile quite quickly. She carried on putting on weight (although breast fed) but slimmed down when she started to move about more. She is now a very skinny 9 year old. DD1 was similar and is now slim 11 year old.
Well done for producing such obviously nourishing milk!

TigerFeet · 23/01/2008 15:50

she's exactly the same as my dd! born on 50th (7 12) then shot up very quickly to 91st+++

Absolutely nothing to worry about at all

I got similar comments from HV's about gold top and how it was good stuff I was giving her. Very heartening

DD is now 3.6 and well proportioned - a bit tall for her age but not excessively so. I don't think it necessarily follows that early fast growers will be excessively tall. I'm 5'6 and dh is 5'11 but there are 6-footers in the family.

Keep up the good work - you're doing really well!

Original poster

Downtowngirl · 23/01/2008 15:50

Wow!

That was my first post on Mumsnet and I got four responses in 10 minutes- thank you very much all, it is very nice to get reassurance from more experienced mums. I'm guessing I will get less devoted to charts and baby books etc as time goes on...

Thanks again

And you are right Twiglett, I should be proud at the prospect of a 6 foot daughter, although she wouldn't be able to borrow my clothes (probably a good thing)!

OP posts:

duchesse · 23/01/2008 15:51

re Overfeeding- you can't overfeed a bf baby.
She is by the sounds of it rejoining her natural "line" in those silly red books. She may or may not turn out tall- there is a long way to go yet. It's easy to misinterpret what is meant as off the cuff remarks by a HV etc... Someone has to be on the top lines of those books, and the 95th percentile is still very inside the normal range (the upper and lower 2% would display a very big variation, whereas the middle of the "bell curve" is a lot more concentrated, as I have had it explained to me).

TigerFeet · 23/01/2008 15:55

I can't remember when I stopped paying attention to the red book but I don't even know where it is now

iirc dd's weight/height growth spurt slowed down when she got to about 6 months - she plateaued for a bit at that point due to crawling/walking/general increased activity and by 12 months was hovering around the 75th centile for height and weight and there she has stayed ever since I suppose - might check tonight just out of interest!

Maddison · 23/01/2008 15:56

Just to echo the other replies - DS2 was like this. He weighed 20lb at 20 weeks and our HV suggested we start to wean him (which we didn't). We were even referred to a peadiatrician because he was so big. She saw him at around 9 months, estimated that he would be between 5' and 6' as an adult and saw him again 6 months later. He was fine then and still is at 2.8yrs.

BTW none of my 3 children lost any of their birthweight either.

Sounds as though you are both doing really well, try to relax and enjoy your baby

Flllightattendant · 23/01/2008 16:01

There;s something called 'regression to the mean' I think, that is basically if two quite small people have babies, the babies are sometimes very tall...nature's way of preventing increasingly small people!!!

Same vice versa.

I have no idea if this is really true.

PerkinWarbeck · 23/01/2008 16:01

my DD was the same - no loss of birth weight, climbed from the 25th centile to the 95th in 6 weeks and stayed firmly there.

she is at the 91st centile for height too, so is roughly in proportion. She is now 10mo.

DH and I are 5'11" and 5'9" respectively. However I was a tall, (slightly tubby) toddler, and towered over classmates until I was 11. Then everyone else caught up! I assume my DD is simply following in mummy's footsteps.

Original poster

Downtowngirl · 23/01/2008 16:03

Thanks again- I'll stop worrying now!

OP posts:

Niecie · 23/01/2008 16:44

My DS1 was putting on as much as a pound a week in his first few weeks and he was breastfed too. He was 6lb 10oz at birth and had doubled his birth weight in 8 weeks (average is 3 months). He had trebled in 8 months instead the average year. He started on the 9th and is now on the 95th and has been there since he was about 18mths (he is 7 now). I fully expect him to be taller than both me and DH but I'm not worried about it because each successive generation is generally getting taller!

I really don't think you can do anything about it - they grow as they are meant to grow, predetermined by their make-up. You can't make her stop growing and I think you should be very proud you have produced such a healthy baby. You can't overfeed a bf baby anyway.

She'll only be 6ft if she doesn't move off the 95th centile between now and adulthood which isn't very likely. All the HV was doing was following the percentile line to the end - I seriously doubt she really meant it as she knows as well as the rest of us that children have blips in their growth.

Your DD could be like my DH, who comes from a short family too. He was always the tallest at school until he was 12 or 13 and then everybody else had a growth spurt, overtook him and left him as average! Growth is not a smooth thing. I am waiting to see if my DSs have their dad's genes and will go from being tall to being average in later years as well.

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