Reducing weight gain

[gnu]

Our 18 week old girl has been putting on weight substantially for some time and gradually stabilising on the 90th percentile or just above. However, over the last couple of weeks her weight gain has increased markedly (13oz this week!). She is now close to 18lbs from a birth weight of 7lob6oz.

Given that she has been on a stable intake of 32oz of formula per day, what might have caused this increase in her weight gain. Can this be a result of a growth spurt even though she didn't actually take in more calories? I would have expected her weight gain to actually slow given that she is larger but still consuming the same volume of milk.

Also, is there a way of trying to lowering her weight gain other than the obvious answer of giving her less milk? The HV suggested introduction of baby rice but I'm not sure if this is likely to make matters worse or better.

Don't even thing about it. Children who are not morbidly obese shouldn't diet, and at 18 weeks old the last thing you need to be worried about is if she is too fat. Stop taking her to weighed if you're4 bothered by what she says.

Hi gnu

My son was like this and I could hardly keep up with him. I wouldn't be concerned as it will even out at some point. With DS he got to a stage where he dropped his intake dramatically - just didn't need it after all the weight gain. He didn't lose weight but just evened out with his height.
I'm not sure I'd agree with your HV about giving baby rice. It did nothing for mine and may make the weight gain worse. I'd just stick to what you're giving her already and let her body regulate things - she won't overfeed excessively and the weight gain will slow - it's probably just a growth spurt. Has anyone checked her length recently to see if she's suddenly a bit taller and therefore heavier.

That is my initial reaction too, but I would like to understand whether a growth spurt could cause her to put on extra weight even if she didn't take in extra calories. Is a growth spurt just an increase in appetite or does it mean that they grow to an extra extent irrespective of what they are fed?

We wouldn't think of her 'dieting' but the HV'd first suggestion was to cut her milk intake. Given that 32oz per day is not that much, I would like to know if there is anything else we should think of doing instead of this.

No, Aragon, she isn't significantly longer. She has got a very big head though! I guess that's a substantial part of her weight.

Actually, we measured her again last night and she seems to have lengthened by nearly 2cm in under a week (up more than 20 centiles)! So perhaps this blip matches the weight blip and would seem to imply a growth spurt.

It seems odd that the HV wouldn't think of this. Her response to little more than one week of high weight gain after relatively stable gain for 8/9 weeks was to show concern and recommend that we either cut her milk intake or wean her early. Shouldn't she have waited to see if this was just a blip/spurt?

Welcome to the bonkers world view of many HVs. Mine got her knickers totally twisted because DD2's weight was dropping. She's now 3 and a small but sturdy vision of adorableness.

Health visitors and weaning early... why are they so desperate to get our babies on to solids . BTW DS was a weighty baby and he's now a solid but nicely proportioned toddler (and never a fussy eater thank God). That was all on breast milk, luckily my doctor had a sensible take on it all and just said that some babies were meant to be bigger but didn't grow too big in the womb or you would never give birth so they were playing catch up afterwards.

Funny, isn't it, how HVs will push baby rice onto perfectly healthy babies as a response to a slowing down of weight. And here we have a HV who is pushing baby rice onto a perfectly healthy baby as a response to a baby whose weight gain has speeded up.

Marvellous stuff, this baby rice.......

Just to check on my original confusion though, does a 'growth spurt' just mean a bigger appetite (the way it is normally described) or do 'spurting' babies put on extra weight at this time even though they might not be given any more to eat? Is it the chicken or the egg?

If its the latter then the HV really is a fool.

Growth spurts are an increase in weight and may lead to an increase in appetite - not always - some just don't require the extra calories (while some do). Her intake of milk is fine and she may just be piling on the weight because she's not moving around yet. It will all even out.
If she seems fine and happy then just carry on with what you're doing and what feels right. I really think your HV has got the baby rice thing wrong. Your DD is not going to gain 13oz a week for the next 10 weeks. I bet she'll soon have a period of not much weight gain to even things out.

My DS went from the 50th centile to the 99th in the first six months of his life and then once he was crawling I couldn't get him above the 50th. Your DD sounds lovely and normal to me.

gnu, I think you are looking for exactness in an area where exactness can't apply.

Your baby may well take (apparently) the same amount of formula each day. But this will still vary - she sicks some up; she leaves some at the bottom of the bottle; a few times, the amount of water used in making up the bottle differs; she might poo or wee more on some days rather than others.

On top of that, some days she may move more or less than others and use up more or less calories.

Also, a baby's metabolism is not like a machine. It will differ, according to the weather, according to his encounters with infection, and just according to human and non-robotic vissicitudes

In addition, a baby's metabolism changes as he grows.

Often a baby will gain weight more slowly one week and his mother has not even noticed he has taken in less milk, and the opposite occurs.

None of this matters at all, except with a formula fed baby the room for the baby to control intake is lessened, so it's up to parents to consciously follow what their baby seems to want, which you have no doubt done.

It doesn't sound to me as if you have anything to worry about or to puzzle about