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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Wanting babies to jump centiles

76 replies

BeakyAndBun · 08/01/2016 16:45

I may well be alone in this but I am ebf my baby and most of the other new mums I've met are ff. It feels like they are competing to have the biggest baby and I feel like I am missing something. My baby is following his centile and thriving but he is long and lean. I know I shouldn't care but I just don't understand why they are all really proud when their babies jump centiles, and congratulate each other. Is this a common thing for mums to want their babies to pack on as much as possible? I feel happy when my son is following the curve as I know he is getting enough breast milk, but I don't get why you would celebrate a ff baby going above the curve. I'm just left scratching my head as to whether this is a 'thing' I'm not getting! They are lovely ladies, I just wondered if I am the unusual one, basically.

OP posts:

Curlywurly4 · 09/01/2016 05:23

Babies should follow the centre ideally, so you're doing fine. Crossing two centiles either way should be explored as it can indicate over feeding, problems with feeding or an underlying health issue.

It's very easy to unintentionally over feed with bottle feeding. Babies don't have the same control over their satiety and subtle signs they are finished are often missed.

Blueberry234 · 09/01/2016 05:30

I have the opposite issue I have an 18 month old who is 0.4th for height and 2nd for weight I keep defending him when people say what a big boy he is and telling them is centile! Totally my own issue but I would be horrified having a baby off the chart or an overweight child (this is totally my own hang ups though)

Blueberry234 · 09/01/2016 05:31

Oh and I FF on demand

redcaryellowcar · 09/01/2016 05:35

I think similarly to you, I understand it's healthy to follow a centile line. Both my babies did including one who was prem (there is a way of adjusting for prematurity) had they been reaching up to higher centile I believe it can indicate growth problems and sometimes babies need to see child development/ paediatrician? If you were to say similar things to parents of teenagers some of these mums would be effectively endorsing over feeding and obesity?

vichill · 09/01/2016 06:14

Baby shouldn't follow the "centre line". It is a chart based on the measurements of bf babies world wide. My 7 month old dd is on the 98th and bf,as was her sister. This is probably down to the fact me and dh would be 98+ on an adult height chart. I would expect that many northern European babies would sit above the 50th. I think the desirability of roly poly is a primal thing to do with surviving barren winters and illness.

ohlittlepea · 09/01/2016 06:26

Every baby is different. Mums enjoy celebrating their babies. My baby was ebf and jumped 2 centiles. The health visitor made me feel like a criminal. There was no celebrating in this house. I would try not to worry to.much about some mums being pleased their babies put on weight. Too much comparison can lead you feeling inadequate or pious neither of which are particularly useful. Enjoy the present with your lovely one :)

BeStrongAndCourageous · 09/01/2016 06:37

I breastfed both mine. DD was born on the 98th percentile and stayed there, more or less. DS was born on 25th and over his first 6 months climbed to 75th and stayed there. The only thing HCPs said about that was "oh, isn't he doing well?"

I think new mothers do get competitive over the daftest things though. I blame the crazy-making combination of hormones and sleep-deprivation.

Curlywurly4 · 09/01/2016 07:22

Centre line should be centile line. Would be weird if all babies weighed the same.

MiaowTheCat · 09/01/2016 07:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheCatsMeow · 09/01/2016 07:43

It's very easy to unintentionally over feed with bottle feeding

No it isn't. I get really annoyed with people saying this, how exactly do you overfeed a baby? If mine doesn't want it he'll force it out his mouth and refuse to drink it. I've had issues with bottle refusing and have had to try everything at times to get him to take it. If a baby doesn't want a bottle you can't force it, and it's ridiculous to think it's easy to overfeed bottle fed babies

Salene · 09/01/2016 07:57

Some do jump naturally from birth but that's them just finding there line

My sone was born 75th and by 4 months was 99th. He was EBF

But I'm 5ft 10, my husband is 6ft1

My dad is 6ft 4

So out so isn't going to be small

But any jumps I think she be early that sad once these baby's get mobile there weight should balance out, I wouldn't be too concerned.

sianihedgehog · 09/01/2016 08:00

I brag about my EBF son jumping centiles.

It's definitely partly because it's much more socially acceptable than talking about how much he poops, or how enormous his wees are. But I do also feel proud that I did it, I made all that lovely milk that made all the beautiful baby chub. And it's also just fascinating - he started at the 25th and is now over the 75th, and that's SO COOL because I'm under 5' tall and his dad is 6'2" and heavy, so it's like nature knew he couldn't fit inside me if he was as big as his genes said he should be, and had him catch up on the outside.

Health visitors and GPs have also been very complimentary about his size and growth being unusually good for a baby who is exclusively breastfed on demand, so I guess the "bigger is better" idea is pretty common.

bonzo77 · 09/01/2016 08:16

This is why I think we need to lay off weighing them so often. Unless there's a problem, eg feeding problem, unusually small at birth. It becomes something else to fret over. Weight alone is not a sign of wellness or development. I've had 3 low birth weight, one of whom was also prem. The first I weighed obsessively. The others only at their development checks (with the MW as new borns, 6 week checks, 12 months etc).

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 09/01/2016 09:15

Bonzo - I agree with that. My first was weighed reasonably regularly (they offered at all the jabs, then six months and 9 I took her to clinic). No. 2 and 3 were not weighed between about 6 weeks and 12 months!

Original poster

BeakyAndBun · 09/01/2016 09:38

Siani- your pride makes way more sense to me though as everyone says you can't overfeed an ebf baby. So you're pleased your body alone can sustain the needs of a bigger baby. Nothing weird about that!

And if someone's ff baby is fed on demand and they get bigger then same- you are giving the baby what he/she is asking for so great job!

I just feel like when literally all the ff mums I know are like "woohoo my previously average weight baby is now right in the upper centiles" and they all congratulate each other, that perhaps they are overfeeding because they want big babies. I don't feel compelled to share my baby's weight gain because it is just steady and thus not noteworthy. But I see all the congratulating and feel that it must be desirable to have a big baby and that people must think my slim ebf baby is being starved of formula which would see him chunk it on like the others. And that even though HCPs don't advise that, society would think I was a better mum for having a big bonnie baby. Yet my rational side says that feeding on demand and following a curve means my son is right where he should be. And that obesity isn't exactly a good thing!

I am definitely over-thinking this. I don't feel like I fit in with the mums I know even though they are really nice people so I just have heightened anxiety that I am doing something different from them and that I have no-one else who thinks like me!

OP posts:

Focusfocus · 09/01/2016 10:03

Oh beakyandbun you speak my very mind!

TheCatsMeow · 09/01/2016 10:09

Babies on the higher Lines aren't obese or fat as they've been described here.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 09/01/2016 10:13

Not if it is their natural position . But if they have been encouraged there because their parents think bigger is preferable, yes, there is a good chance they are.

TheCatsMeow · 09/01/2016 10:15

How the hell do you overfeed a baby? That keeps getting thrown around but have any of you ever tried to feed a baby that doesn't want feeding? It's impossible

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 09/01/2016 10:18

Some babies are very easy to over feed actually.

Some are very clear when they are done.

TheCatsMeow · 09/01/2016 10:21

Libraries I only have experience of my own and that of people I know but all of them will push the bottle out when they're done.

Shantotto · 09/01/2016 10:22

They might be heavy but are they actually 'fat'?

As I mentioned by mostly FF baby was 9th centile and is now 75 and heading higher. He is fairly slim - just very long!

Shantotto · 09/01/2016 10:23

Agree with TheCatsMeow too - my baby is very good at refusing.

And I was always told if they eat too much at this sort of age they just throw it back up.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 09/01/2016 10:23

If you have a Google there are lots of articles.

Good that yours knew their mind. Always a positive trait for later.

TheCatsMeow · 09/01/2016 10:25

Besides, it’s almost impossible to overfeed a baby. Babies come with an incredibly sophisticated self-regulation system: When they’re hungry, they eat. When they’re full, they stop. (Sadly, we’ve lost this mechanism by the time we become parents.) So when your baby turns away from the bottle or breast, and refuses to even consider another nip, he’s telling you he’s full. When he keeps coming back for more, he’s truly hungry. (Never mind the fact that he just finished a full six ounces!)

www.thebump.com/a/overfeeding-baby

Not sure how reliable that is though

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