Reassurance please - excl BF DS dropping percentiles

[nickymorris]

I'm probably obsessing about the graph a bit but my DS hasn't really gained in the last 4 weeks. At birth he was 10lb 6oz which is on the 99.6th percentile line. He stuck to that line like glue for the first 10 weeks by which point he was 16lb 10oz.

We're now at 14 weeks and he's 17lb 7oz... He's dropped from the 99.6th percentile line and is heading towards the 91st. We weighed this morning and have been asked to go back in 2 weeks and if he's dropped below the 91st percentile line the HV said that's when we should start to worry.

I'm wondering if there is anything I could/should do? He's happy and enjoys his food. However he does feed quickly (6mins for his pre-bed feed this evening) which I've always put down to my milk coming down quickly but am now worrying that the volume isn't there for him.

it is normal for breastfed babies to gain quickly and then to tail off.
dropping centile lines isn't a worry. he isn't losing weight is he? just gaining slowly?

I honestly wouldn't be worried. in fact, I'd probably just stop getting him weighed. if he is happy, healthy, feeding well, pooing and weeing and meeting developmental milestones then he is fine.

if you do take him to be weighed again ask if they have some "thrive lines" to put on the chart. they'll know what you mean

Both my exclusively bf babies plateaued around 15/16 weeks - still gaining but only 2-3oz per week on average. With DD1 the advice then was to wean at 16 weeks which I did. DD2 is a more recent addition and I didn't wean then, waited a bit and she carried on gaining slowly. They were on 91st and 98th centiles born and settled onto 50th by around 6 months.

As thisisyesterday says if he is happy, healthy, feeding well, pooing and weeing and meeting developmental milestones then he is fine.

It's hard, but try not to worry.

Start to worry???

FFS, the woman is a lunatic.

He's not going to stay excactly on a percentile line.

Ditch the scales, cancel the visits nad just enjoy your baby.You're doing a great job.

dd started on 50th centile, dropped to 25th centile straight away and then slowly dropped to 2nd centile and hv said nothing to worry about, she is healthy and gains weight slowly. charts are for ff babies anyway. think height makes a difference too as dd is only on 9th centile for height so is in propertion.

WTF? Below the 91st and start to worry?

Why why why?

If he crashed from 99th to 4th, and was drastically losing weight, then maybe.

Tik Tok was really helpful for me and pointed to the NICE guidelines which stipulated when healthy babies should be weighed. I don't have the link, but perhaps you could ask your H/V what the NICE guidelines states re: intervals when babies should be weighed and why this isn't being followed.

Bear in mind that HVs know very little about breastfeeding and are renowned for giving out damaging and inaccurate advice.

If you need a proper opinion form someone who knows what they are talking about, try a breastfeeding counsellor. Numbers listed on this MNers blog.

How breastfeeding works

That's almost exactly what happened to my dd although starting on the 50th. Between 10 and 16 weeks she only put on 6oz. I ignored the HV's advice to top up with formula or wean at 16 weeks and carried on as I was. I could see my baby was perfectly fine! HV really took the biscuit when I went to get dd weighed at 1yr though. She looked at the fucking chart and commented on how funny it is that so many of them drop off thier line and end up back on it around a year Makes me at how many mums might have given up bf or weaned early on her advice, when it's perfectly normal for them not to follow the line week by week.

Just carry on as you are. He sounds like he's doing great

He's not dropping, he has gained weight. He just isn't putting it on as fast as the chart suggests some other babies do. Charts are nonsense, at 16 weeks I wouldn't be taking him to be weighed regularly tbh - I stopped about then.

The charts tell you nothing about what a child should be weighing anyway, just how they compare to their obese peers. I read a very interesting article about how the "double birth weight at six months, treble at a year" only holds true for an average sized baby ie 7lbs ish. Your child may well end up weighing 30lbs at a year, but he probably won't and there is nothing to worry about there.

Pink, that sums up their general uselessness.
How many women have had their confidence wrecked by numpties like that?

FWIW both my sons dropped from 95th at birth to 25th at 9 months. Both were happy, healthy, fed well etc (everything that thisisyesterday said). Got lots of stress about offering milky puddings and snacks to ds1 with weaning etc. With ds2 I avoided them all!
Would it maybe worth finding a bf counsellor to check your ds son's latch etc for a bit of reassurance and take it from there?

Breastfed babies always drop off a bit at around 3-4 mths. They naturally cut down their milk intake. unlike ff babies which are forced to have the same amount every 4 hours! The graphs in the red books are based on a mixture of ff and bf babies, so can be quite inaccurate for purely b-fed babies. Please have a look at the WHO breastfed baby charts.
www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/chart2.html

I agree, EBF babies slow down their gain natually. DD stayed the same wieght for 2 months (give or take an Oz or 2). She went from a very chubby baby to a longer and leaner baby. Once she was 6m and I started weaning her (still BF as well) she picked up and is a very healthy 90th 2 year old. She is tall and well built - like me

Since that episode she continues to gain wieght then have a spurt and shoot up an inch or so overnight!

So long as they do not drop wieght or seem poorly you should relax a little
Let us know how you get on.

My ds was 9lb 2 oz when he was born, and steadily dropped to 30th where he has remained ever since. He was always plump, happy and healthy, so I never worried, but the health visitors were OBSESSED with percentile lines and said he should have been following the one he was on when he was born. He was always short, however, which they ignored, and even now at 2.11 is still plump but little. A paediatrician who saw him for something unrelated at 2.2 said that it was rubbish that they follow a line after they are born, and said they naturally find their own centile later on. I wish she'd been around to tell the health visitors that in his first year, they gave me hell about switching to formula. Fuckwits!

I had some BF gain chart worry issues and a great HV told me the chart is very old and based on bottle fed babies. Gain is very different with BF ones

The other stuff that can make a bit of difference like time of day (when baby last fed, filled nappy etc), ability of HV to use a calculator and convert to correct weight units for chart.

Try not to worry. I don't think your lo would settle if he was hungry.

My ds3 was on the 50th centile when born and is now (at 9 months) following the 25th centile line. He actually gained absolutely no weight between 25 and 31 weeks and I got some stupid comments from hv like I shouldn't be feeding in the night etc (which I ignored). I don't think birth weight is an indication of how big children will be later in life. My ds2 was 3lbs heavier than ds1 when born (both full term) but is no bigger now than ds1 was at his age.

Thanks for all the advice - I definitely got the reassurance I asked for - MN is fab. He is still a big boy and does eat well. We've always had a slightly dodgy latch - lots of clicking as he feeds due to my fast let-down. The NCT BF councillor I saw couldn't make any suggestions though - although Kellymom did have some useful stuff and we do a lot of our feeds lying down these days as a result.

I'll try and ignore the graphs and take him for weighing less.

Do people know if the length graphs are similarly skewed as they contain data for FF babies as well as BF?

nicky - ask your HV about 'catch down' growth, which is a known phenomenon affecting larger than average babies as they naturally head towards a lower centile.

Charts in the UK are not all that old, and they're useful enough in skilled hands, but not when they are used in this way. They're not very different in the first six months from the WHO bf baby charts, but they do start to show a slight difference from about 4-5 mths when the breastfed babies tend to start looking lighter than formula fed babies - all perfectly physiolgical and healthy

Your baby is behaving normally, growing normally and is happy. What's not to like?

IIRC, length graphs are the same for bf babies.

I saw HV today for a weight, DD is 12 weeks and has put on weight but not enough.

Apparently me having PND has caused it as it is making my milk 'poor quality'

I was feeling quite good today too, bloody HV.

What a load of hooey! Take no notice, iwishiwasamermaid

Carry on the grand job you are doing and try not to worry about the chart-obsessed few.

My DS dropped from 91st to 9th centile over 18 months, but thankfully I have a great HV who took one look at my adorable, cheeky, plumptious little chap and told me not to worry in the slightest.

He was born big (prob cos he was a bit later than everyone thought, I always thought he was closer to 3 weeks overdue than the 5 days according to scan) and that he has gradually come down to where he would have been - which is on the short, petite, light side, like his Mum (well, not so light at the moment but I have only wine and icecream to blame for that).

As long as he continues to gain, albeit at his own rate, and you feel satisfied that he is content, let that be your guide.

Tiktok- thanks for that mention of 'catch down' growth - just Googled it and it seems to describe my big-then-litle boy perfectly.

What a load of shit Iwish.
Silly arse. That is an outright lie.
Please share more details.