7 month old - storming up the weight centiles

[kingfishergreen]

DD was born on the 50th centile for height and weight, she hit the 75th for weight and head circumference at about 4 months.

Now suddenly (over the course of six weeks) she's moved from the 75th to the 91st centile for weight. This coincides with weaning.

I worry because I'm overweight, and my husband is big-built (though not overweight per se). I don't want DD to have her future health or confidence compromised by decisions we make on her behalf now.

Currently she eats:

4-5 bottles a day (regular formula, bottles vary between 210ml and 240ml depending on how hungry she seems) - she often doesn't finish her bottle, so she seems to know when she's had enough.

Solid food three times a day, loosely at meal times. She eats very little in terms of quantity (the most she's ever eaten is 1/2 a weetabix with formula and apple, normally it's the equivalent of 1 or 1.5 ice cubes of food).

The food we give her is mixed, for example on an average day she could eat:

Weetabix with formula and peach puree (1/4 weetabix, 1 cube fruit)
Rice with vegetables (bit like risotto) (maybe one cube)
A finger of pancake/bread (no bigger than the average adult thumb)
Sweet potato and broccoli (one maybe two cubes)

Occasionally she has cauliflower cheese or something, but always small portions and I'm aware that babies need carbs and fats to grow and develop (her choice, she's offered three cubes at a time and eats up to half).

She is generally healthy and happy, she looks a bit 'wodgy' but I presumed she'd slim down once she gets moving (she is on the verge of crawling). She rolls and jumps (in her jumperoo) and goes swimming so she is getting exercise.

Are we doing this all wrong? Does any one have any happy tales about their 91st centile child who went back to the 50th when they started walking?

I know she's only a baby, and I am aware that as she gets older I need to be careful how I approach worries about weight and health - I just don't want to set her up to be unhealthy.

Sorry I should add, the HV wasn't concerned at weigh-in this week. She said it just meant that she was healthy and growing.

I might be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Is she also tall, eg 91st centile for height? If so, you have nothing to worry about.

In fact, even if not, you have nothing to worry about. A 7 month baby will regulate her appetite naturally and may well move up and down the centiles a bit.

Try to relax. If you are anxious about it, then when she is a bit older she will start to pick up on your stress signals and that is when food becomes a power struggle.

She remains on the 50th centile for height (but near the top of the 50th if that makes sense).

She does seem to regulate her appetite, she doesn't eat when she's not hungry - I'm just hoping I'm offering her the right things. I've read quite a lot of weaning books and it doesn't look like we're going too far wrong.

And you're completely right, I don't want to pass on my concerns about eating and weight to DD, I want her to have a truly 'healthy' attitude to food and her body as she grows.