Losing weight at 4 months - should i worry?

[NoSleepTillWeaning]

I got DS weighed today at his jabs and it turns out he's dropped from 50th centile to 25th in the last 2 weeks. He's not been ill or anything and I intend to start weaning in a couple of weeks but should I be worried??

He's BF except for a pre-bed bottle.

Is he actually losing weight or just not gaining as much?

My DS dropped from the 80th ish percentile to the 50th ish at around 4 months. He didn't lose weight though just didn't gain as much as normal. At last weigh-in he continued to the follow the new percentile curve.

I think its normal for BF babies to plateau around 3-4 months. I know the chart I have in my red book is for FF babies and therefore does not take this into account.

If my DS had continued to pack on the weight as he had been he would be huge!

It's within normal limits for a baby to drop 2 centile lines - and 50th to 25th is just one line

As ever, if the baby is fine, then you don't need to do anything or be concerned or wean.

Presumably no one said anything that indicated concern at the weighing?

Charts make no difference at this stage - the different charts only start to diverge at about 5 mths.

Thats when my 2nd EBF started to drop centiles. Went from just over 75th to just over 25th. Now staying on this line. He's not the tallest so probably found the right curve for his build.

Thanks for the reassurance. HV didn't seem bothered but as I was grilling her about sleep we were on another topic! (DS is a lousy sleeper - but I was thinking the waking was hunger rather than habit). He has actually dropped weight, rather than just plateauing - must be all that wriggling he's doing!

A baby actually losing weight would make me a bit concerned, tbh.

First of all, were both weighings on the same scale, baby naked, etc etc? Is there anything else up with him?

Are you sure the weights were written down/converted properly?

And how much weight is he down? I guess a couple of grams is no big deal, and could be down to a big wee or whatever ...

Does he seem unwell to you? Has anything else been going on with you or him, health-wise?

Yes, I agree - an actual weight loss can signify a number of things and is worth exploring.

Am getting him checked again today. I didn't have my red book with me yesterday so didn't realise till i got home it was loss - 6.7kg down to 6.54kg. Previous weighing was just after big feed which may have contributed??

Both weighings with HV so naked. Benn feeding normally, not ill etc etc. In fact, ironically i've been trying to eat more to get him to sleep better (wasn't having the 500 extra cals). Supply always seems good tho. He feeds 5+ during day and 2-3 times during night. Only factor may be extra distractability at 4 months.

My plan is to watch him for a week - try to get some extra feeds in and get him weighed again next monday at clinic. If still losing weight will switch to formula, which i was considering anyway. Have only not switched because he won't take it at room temp and it's half term next week (have 2 older DD).

What do you think?

Does feel as tho i'm failing to feed him properly tho - especially as dd1 was always on the 98th centile, dd2 on 75th, so 50th felt a big low anyway!

(typing one handed while feeding)

Phew - panic over. At re weigh today he was 6.94 and still on 50th .

Don't know what was up with the scales yesterday...

6.7 to 6.54 could be a big feed or a big pee (or both). Glad to hear it's back to normal, anyway.

The general advice, from what I know, is to only weigh them when they are getting jabs etc, so weighings should be pretty infrequent. Gives a better curve, for one thing.