Baby dropping centiles

[ftmcep]

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or has some reassurance to offer me maybe. My baby is 9 weeks old and just under the 25th centile for weight and on the 75th for height. My baby was born 8.4 at around 50th centile and since being weighed weekly has dropped gradually to just under the 25th centile. He has continued to gain weight every week so no static growth or weight loss and produces plenty wet nappies and has hit all developmental milestones so far. I’m tall and slim as is babies Dad so I was reassuring myself in the knowledge that baby is finding his own curve however my HV has worried me a little, wants to closely monitor his weight and has explained catching down with weight doesn’t happen this late on, it’s only within the first couple of weeks that they’d catch down. I offer him 7oz every 4 hours ish and he seems to nearly finish every bottle and he isn’t a very sicky baby either, not sure what more I can do and there’s suggestions that this is concerning and we need to get to the root of the problem. I’m a ftm and need reassurance, HVs have worried me😫

My DD definitely did the bath down thing abd it took her till around 4 months to find her centile and she's been in it ever since. She's now a slim teen.

Having said that, I would try offering a bottle every 3 hours in the day. Even if it's just to get him used to having his calories in the daytime so that he will eventually drop the night feeds.

I know that measuring baby's length can be tricky but has the HV measured his length as well as his weight?

If not, next time you see her I'd ask her to measure his length, his head circumference and his weight and record them all in his Red Book, just so that you have an accurate record of how he's tracking on each centile. The weight centile is pretty meaningless anyway without the length centile.

There.is no need for the HV to be overly worried but if she is and ends up referring him, this record of the 3 centiles will be helpful.

Have a read of Look at the Baby, Not the Scales as well. I hope you find it useful

DD dropped down the centiles for the first 4 months or so, they continued to monitor her as well. The GP checked her and referred us to the paediatric dietitian, she started following the 9th centile just when we saw the dietician! We think she was just born big (91st centile). Monitoring is not a bad idea just in case there is a problem, but it certainly doesn't mean there is one so try not to worry!