Baby 10 month only weighs 7.1kg

[Danilowe]

Hey,

im freaking out!!

my little girl is 10 month old next week and is only weighing 7.1kg.

she’s always been a very small baby and has always been on a low centile but I’m worried she’s not gaining enough weight.

the HV has said to try let her eat on her own more baby led but I don’t get how that would make her gain wait as most of it ends up on the floor….

any advice please!? And to what meals I could give her?

Thanks

Is she tracking her centile or falling down the charts?

You can make baby foods quite high in calorie so that every mouthful that does go in is more nutritious/calorific:

Breakfast ideas
porridge made with full fat milk and mashed banana
scrambled egg made with plenty of butter with buttered toast fingers
full fat greek yoghurt, mashed avocado and banana

Lunch ideas
Roasted salmon fillet, baby pasta and cream cheese
risotto with plenty of grated cheese in
spaghetti bolognese with butter on the pasta

Dinner ideas
soup with cream stirred through and breadsticks
macaroni cheese

you get the idea....

How much milk does she have now?

has she / is she dropping centiles?

With DTs who were very prem I had to spoon feed them, they were dropping down the centiles. I made lots of things in cheese sauce, vegetables, pasta, etc. Avocado was popular too.

That would put her at about the 9/10th percentile. So quite little but if she’s been tracking that sort of percentile for a while it’s not necessarily concerning. If she had dropped from a much higher percentile then that’s more of a concern.

She’s probably still getting a big percentage of her calories from milk. Obviously you have to keep feeding her meals, it’s important for them to learn to eat, but I wouldn’t worry too much about the quantity actually going in if she’s drinking plenty of milk still and her weight gain keeps tracking her usual centile.

You can also alternate between favourite foods you know she’ll eat and new things/finger foods to practice with. So if you know she’ll demolish a bowl of porridge no problem give her that for breakfast and then a new thing to hold and try at lunch.

The actual weight is less relevant than if she is losing percentiles. My daughter weighed about 7kg when she turned 1. she just turned 2 and only weighs just under 10kg! but she's been on the 9th percentile bang on since she was two weeks old! hasn't wavered from it at all. we do weigh her on a semi regular basis especially now she likes to stand on the scales herself it's fairly easy. I did ask the doctor about it at her jabs. was told some babies are just petite and nothing you can do about it. they prefer a smaller baby who stays on their percentile than a bigger one who moves up and down the lines all the time.

For the record she is the biggest energiser bunny you've ever seen and incredibly bright and bubbly. nothing wrong with her. Saying that at 5'3" I am the tallest woman in my family and my mother in law stands at about 5'0" so she was not likely to be a giant.

I've just looked at my red books. DD was about 7.8kg at 10 months. DS I don't have measurements past 8 months but at 8 months he was bang on the 9th centile line so would have been the same as your DD.

They were just little, nothing wrong. As others have said if she's not dropping centiles there's nothing to worry about.

That doesn't sound bad? My son is 14 months and only 19 lb (9kg) and sits on the 13th percentile. Maybe she's just built smaller?

My daughter is 30 months and just about 11kg. I can see She was never a chubby baby and has always been from the 2-10th percentile. She's very healthy but definitely has a smaller appetite than some of friends' kids.

She has 3 bottles about 18oz a day on a good day!

Thank you all for commenting and giving suggestions and putting me more at ease.

she’s always been on the 9th centile but sits just slightly under it at the minute!

Sounds like she's following a perfectly healthy centile.

If she's tracking her centile then I wouldn't worry at all. You can always add things like cream to mashed potato and scrambled eggs and pasta sauces, avocado is great for healthy fats, if you've got an air fryer, try coating it in breadcrumbs and turning it into chips, hummus is great as a dip for adding calories too. My wee one is 30 months and is only 9.8kg and not even on the charts but he's tracking his own curve. These are all things we do to add calories as advised by the dietician.