How much weight did your baby gain....

[barbie1]

in the first year?

Doctor has just told me that my DD is off the scale, falling from around the 2/5th percentile to not even on it

Just under 6lb at birth, 16lb a year on, so only a 10lb gain. Still breast feeding as she refuses the bottle, goes through phases of eating well and then will quite happily go without for days (mainly while teething)

My gp has advised me to give up bf and give her pedisure formula milk which contains extra calories.

Dd is an active little madame, early crawler and early walker. In fact there is hardly a minute that she isn't on the go. Gp says that is no excuse for poor weight gain.

Any ideas on ways i can bulk her up a little???

Do you not have a redbook? The weight charts in mine are based on bf babies afaik and have been useful.

TBH I'm amazed you've got to a year without having slow weight gain flagged before!

Since we cracked bfing (after a very rocky start when DD lost 15% of her birth weight), DD has put on 0.5 to 1.5 ounces a week. At her 12 week weigh-in (only weighing monthly now so it's a few weeks back), she was 10lb 14 - birth weight 7lb 7, lowest weight of 6lb 4 at 10 days old.

As your DD is already weaning, can't you work on getting more foods in her (and fattier healthy foods like full-fat yogurt, cheese, etc) whilst bfing?

Doh! Should be 0.5 to 1.5 pounds a week

Right, got the red book out to have a look and she was 8lb 3oz at birth. At one year she was 17lb 15oz so she actually gained less weight than your DD. Nobody ever said she had a problem and nobody suggested giving up bfing.

If you are concerned, you could ask for a referral. In anycase I don't think that your GP should have suggested giving up bfing as the WHO recommendations are to bf for a minimum of 2 years.

Agree with Japhrimel, couldn't her calorie intake be increased with her food instead?

Sounds like my daughter, she was 7.5lb at birth at 17lb at 12 months. She crawled at 20 weeks and was very active, plus had ear infections almost constantly. She never really took to solid foods (a few bites at most with every meal). She is now 2 and was 21 lb at her 24 month check up. She is still not a great eater but has growth spurts and during those she has more of an appetite. My pediatrician said it was nothing to worry about, she is just going to be small. At 12 months he said just to make sure she was eating full fat versions of all dairy products and ensure the rest of her diet was balanced. I did stop bf at 13 months, but it didn't make any difference to her appetite. I would relax as much as you can, not all children are going to be big.

There is no harm in adding calories to your daughter's daily intake, and you can give the pediasure without stopping breastfeeding - don't understand the logic of why pediasure has to be instead of bf.

You could ask to speak to a dietitian who specialises in babies - the dietitian would prob suggest you make her food calorie-dense, so she can have small amounts of food but which are high in calories. This would include bananas, avocados, cereal foods.

There's no doubt about it - this is an unusual weight gain, and the doctor is right to be concerned, to make sure your baby is getting what she needs. It's good, and reassuring, that she is healthy despite it all :)

Thanks for your responses

My opening post should of said between the 2nd and the 5th percentile, not the 25th

We do not have a red book, i gave birth to her in Dubai and things are a little different,

The weight has been mentioned throughout the last year, but they said bfing was good, to continue and that she would just be a small baby.

It was only at the 1 year check that the gp voiced his concerns.

I think the giving up bf came about due to my dd refusing any other form of milk. So in theory if i gave up bf she would have no choice but to take this milk

We are trying hard with her diet, giving her high calorie foods but it's hit and miss depending on how she is feeling to whether she eats it or not.

I just don't know what to do for the best. Im not worried that she is going to be small, just concerned that she doesnt seem to be gaining as she should.

Makes no sense to stop bf. The fact your dd refuses other sorts of milk means she risks not taking any milk at all if you stop bf....try adding the pediasure in other ways perhaps? Will she drink from an egg cup?

My dd was born at 6lb 6oz and weighted 17lb at a year. She didn't crawl but bum shuffled at 11 months. She's 4 next week and still on the small side but not tiny.

Trying to get more calories into your dd is reasonable advice, but stopping bf isn't the way to do this.

Is it really an unusual weight gain tiktok? I was told (and it's also in Kellymom among others) that most bf babies weigh 2.5-3x their birth weight by the time they are one....6 to 16 lbs is right in that range, isn't it?

Best thing is to look at the charts which show expected rate of weight gain.

The OP's post said she was on the 25th centile and was now off the chart.

That's unusual....but I know see she has corrected that and actually, when I track the actual weights, she is not off the chart!

16 pounds is 7260g, or just above the 2nd centile. She started on the 2nd centile - so you are right, ecobatty, using the OP's corrected figures she has remained on the centile she was born on.

OP, look at the charts :)

Tiktok my dh salutes you, he has been keeping his own chart and has assured me that she is still on the percentile, as you have just re confirmed

Gp gave me one that he scribbled all over and was in arabic, i've just had another look and the problem seems to be that she hasnt in fact gained weight since her 10 month check. He wants her on the 8th percentile?

I wont stop bf, thanks for all the reassurance that its not my b milk that isnt good enough. I will stick to my gun's and just go with thw flow and get as much high calorie food into her as poss.

Any more ideas for snacks that i can give dd?

DDs favourite snack appears to be butter, but I'm not saying you should try that .

You could always try doing things like adding cream to your mashed potato etc.

Things that DD likes to snack on are peanut butter and strips of meat, like chicken or ham and breadsticks. You could try guacamole as well.

and humous.

and she loves Fudge too, think its difficult to get more calories in a snack

DD born 6lbs 12
12 months (and 2 weeks) 16lbs 3oz (and I think that was largely down to the copious amount of cake she had in her b'day week ).

Look your DD will be what she wants to be, there is no point aiming for a centile.

She also loves peanut butter sandwiches atm. My pead said it's normal for them to like one food/food group and trust that they know what they need. If they mac n cheese for a month then so be it. Just continue to offer other stuff along side it.

DD when she started to walk had static weight for a while, but no HCP has ever had a problem with her, as they assessed her and not her weight.

DD has 2 snacks as well as 3 meals

also I thought DD was inbetween 2nd and 9th at that weight, so firmly on the chart. As a 2 centile drop/gain is normal, then I see nothing wrong with this

do you do cereal with full fat milk?

thanks penguin and jjj for your numerous posts

Tis very hard doing high calorie snacks but since dd is cutting three teeth all at once main meals seems to have gone out of the window, instead she favours picking and snacking throughout the day...i will try some of your suggestions

penguin i try to do cereal with full fat milk but dd is very independent and refuses to be fed which just adds to the frustration

I have downloaded the english versions of the centile chart and will keep an eye myself, no idea why the doctor worried me like he did. Like i said my only guess was the zero weight gain in two months but this co-insided with her walking so im putting it down to that.

Gp may be wrong. My three daughters were all 7.5 lbs at birth, give or take a couple of oz- ie roughly 50 percentile- and all gained a steady 2oz a week from birth to age 2, falling in their first 4 months to somewhere between the 0.2nd and 9th percentile at various points along the way. All three ate very like your DD or less and all 3 lived almost entirely on my milk.

I just dug out their red books:

DD1 was a tad over 7kg at 12 months, walking and talking for over 2 months.

DD2 was also a smidge over 7kg at 12 months, also walking and running everywhere since 10 months.

DD3 was about 7.25 kg at 12 months, and started walking the week she turned 12mo.

All three were and are perfectly healthy by any standard. DD1 and DD2 are now beautiful teenagers, still growing but now 1m64 and 1m58 respectively with perfectly healthy weights.

I sometimes think that there are so few exclusively breastfed 1yo that no health professional quite knows what to make of their growth curves.

That said, I cannot see your daughter and you will have the best idea of her state of health. Weight alone is no measure of that. I'm sure if you were in the slightest bit worried about your daughter's health (rather than mere weight_) you would go straight to the doctor, no?

for reference's sake, 7kg is 15lb 6oz, 7.25 kg is 15lb 15oz.

Thankyou duchesse i feel so much more at ease

Dd is gorgeous, happy, clever and for what it's worth healthy imo.

I guess it kind of looks funny to see her walking and being so bright yet still so tiny. Strangers feel the need to comment on her size almost daily.

Im the only one of my peers who is still ebf, dd is so much smaller than their children so i can make no comparisons to children her age.

I guess being so far from home makes me a little more paranoid, and the health system is different too.....

People still think DD3 is too small to be doing what she does (everything) and she's 18 mo now! She started her shoe-wearing career in crawlers as her feet were too small for normal shoes (size 2) and they are only just a 3.5 now. She weighs about 8.5 kg now and eats a little better than at 12 months, still breastfed, but I just don't stress about it as she's otherwise perfectly healthy and I have her sisters' examples to draw on. Another friend mentioned that her daughters were about 15lbs at 12 months- I don't think it's all that unusual.

dd is the same, today she had on her cardigan that we bought to bring her home from hospital in, just fits now. Most of her clothes are still 3-6 months, but she is so cute and wears it well Ditto re shoes, we took her to be measure at 6 months when she was cruising but there was nothing for her, same at 9.5 months when she was fully walking...finally now she has some shoes that fit although they are all slightly wide.

Petite is nice on girls, just wish i was

DD3 has just grown out of some 3-6m clothes. Most of the things that fit her nicely are 6-12 and 9-12m. She has a couple of 12-18mo but 18-24 m is way out.