Baby dropping percentiles

[Whittab]

Hi,

Not sure how to feel about it but my baby seems to be dropping percentiles over the last 4 weeks.

6 weeks - 4.59kg 24th percentile
8 weeks - 4.8kg 19th percentile
10 weeks (today) - 5.22kg - 16th percentile

i spoke to a heath visitor today who didn’t seem concerned and said it’s good he is putting on weight.

For context, I am exclusively breastfeeding on demand. My baby is generally happy and super alert which even the health visitor commented on. He has plenty of wet nappies and usually has dirty nappies every other day, sometimes once a day.

Has anybody else had similar experiences/weights and what was the outcome?

thanks for reading.

Babies usually don't and aren't expected to follow the percentiles that precisely – the curves are perfectly smooth because they're an average of lots of babies, but the growth of an individual baby has some growth spurts and some periods where they'll grow more slowly.

A baby who is consistently between two centile lines or within half a space either side of a centile line is generally consider to be following their centile nicely. At the moment, it looks like it could be that your baby will be between the 9th and 25th centile lines – assuming baby seems well in themselves, that's completely fine.

They generally start to worry about 'dropping centiles' when a baby has crossed two centile lines (so 25th to 2nd in your case). Both of mine dropped one and half centile lines, so we had a few extra weights to make sure the drop didn't continue and they started following a centile better. (Both did, one with the aid of reflux medication.)

Weights too close together aren't reliable, so as long as baby has plenty of wet and dirty nappies and seems well in himself, if the HV isn't concerned, I'd try to get another weight in about a month and see where he is then. Hopefully he'll continue to track between the 9th and the 25th.

We started at 50th, at six weeks was at 25th and gradually went down to the 15th. We were bottle feeding though. Honestly she just hated milk, it was a real struggle until we started weaning and she started reducing bottles. only advice given was to feed her more. We were advised to get her weighed every two weeks and then she started hoovering around the 20th percentile for a few weeks and they signed her off. Now 8 months an back to the 25th.

They only really start to worry if they drop more than 2 percentile lines. it's normal to drop at least one esp when they stop feeding at night as much. i wouldn't stress. as long as baby seems satiated (ie isnt crying all the time), is gaining weight, seems generally happy and healthy and has lots of wet and dirty nappies it's fine

My 3 started around the 50th line and then dropped centiles consistently. My dd went to the 2nd the boys hover around the 7th. They are just wee like thier dad.

When looking at percentiles it's about the bands rather than the exact percentiles and it's quite common for babies to bounce between 2 percentiles.
My daughter was between the 9th and 15th percentile until I identified her allergies and then she's moved to between the 25th and 50th percentile and stayed there for 4 years she moves up to the 50th percentile then has 6 monitor slower growth for 6 months drifting down to the 25th percentile stays there for 3 months slowly moving back up to the 50th and the cycle starts again

Dropping a percentile in your case will be going from the 25th to the 9th percentile a d only if their weight continued to drop towards the 2nd percentile that it would be concerning. It probably wouldn't hurt to keep up with monthly weigh ins to keep track but I wouldn't fret too much just yet especially if they are developing well with plenty of wet and dirty nappies

Yes my baby boy is similar. He was born on 75th centile at 8lbs 4oz and has since dropped to 25th centile and sometimes dips below. He has these funny weeks where he doesn’t gain much at all and then will shoot up again.

He’s 4 months now and weighs 13lbs 11oz which is between 10-25th centiles. To look at him you wouldn’t think he was ‘underweight’ at all, he’s very long and seems quite a big baby when compared to others his age. He’s very bright eyed and bushy tailed but still we’re being referred for ‘faltering growth’ and have an appt with the dietetics team.