Can a 5m ff baby put on too much weight - 6lbs in 2 weeks?

[zipzap]

That's it really, just asking for a friend.

Baby is just 5 months old and was 18lb at 4.5 months, is now 24lb at 5 months old. She is ff, she only has the amount & number of feeds recommended on the packet for her age, which she seems happy with - isn't demanding more or leaving lots.

It puts her at about 98th percentile weight, not bothered by that as somebody has to be there and both parents are tall, baby is not short. It's just that the rate of weight gain is accelerating much faster than the slope of the 95th percentile curve (I don't have a chart to hand with 98th percentile on). It's almost shooting straight up. And she is beginning to look much fatter than previously, now has rolls of fat that need to be carefully wiped in the creases, previously was just a nice chubby cuddly baby.

The HV said not to worry, maybe to start feeding in case she is hungry.

I've had a quick google, most worries about weight gain are for breastfed babies or in the very early days. And nobody seems to have anything for a baby that has put on so much weight so rapidly/weighs so much at this age.

I'm sure it probably is nothing and that in a couple of years time she will be fine, but just wanted to check and be sure that there was nothing that should be ruled out in case there was some sort of underlying problem...

thanks!

Hmmm. Now I was always told that babies have a very simple relationship with food, they understand hunger and will not eat if not hungry which would mean, no they can't put on too much weight. I am not a believer in this. Ds1 was born on 98th percentile and was a hungry baby, by 6 weeks his graph plot was coming off the chart, it was going upin a straight line rather than following the curve iyswim. I was obviously quite concerned and was advised by my hv to give half a feed and then distract him for 4 hours!
Don't have any advice, but I'm sure if your friends baby was having too much, she'd just sick it up, their belly can only hold what it can hold and if hv has said not to worry, don't worry. Although personally, I'd be tempted to get a second opinion, can your friend pop along to another baby clinic?

Either the scales are wrong or the HV was distracted and wrote it down wrong, or your friend misunderstood. 6lb weight gain in 2 weeks for a 5 month old baby is impossible (unless the baby was very ill with a heart condition or kidney failure and was retaining fluid, but there would be other signs like not weeing, vomiting etc). This is one of reasons the guidlines for weighing babies have changed - healthy babies only need to be weighed approx 3 times in the first year. Frequent weighing is pointless and causes unneccessary worry, especially when mistakes are made.

Thanks for that SMS and Stripey.

Stripey, she has really put on that amount of weight - as she was so big and there was so much of a difference it was double checked both times. I didn't get involved in the ounces so it could be that it was actually just over 4lbs she put on when those are taken into account, but even that still seems a lot for a couple of weeks.

I guess that is why I am posting on here - to find out what the 'unless the baby was really ill' symptoms are to keep an eye out for them in case this is because she is ill. She was diagnosed with a heart murmur at her 6wk check but then when she went back for a follow up appointment a couple of months later (done by a different doctor) it wasn't found. But it does mean that it is something else to throw into the mix and worry about! She also seems to be more grotchety in the couple of weeks, particularly in the evenings. And the whole family seems to have been struck down by lots of bugs recently, so they are all reeling and trying to recover from those.

She hadn't been weighed for a while until the 4.5 month weighing - and then went back at the HV's suggestion as she seemed to have shot across the percentiles from being weighed a couple of months previously, so she hasn't been obsessively tracking her dd's weight, just going back for a follow up as suggested by HV.

And she doesn't seem overly hungry - is happy to have what is given to her as per instructions on ff packet for her age, might fall asleep half way thru one feed and then want a bit bigger one the next time around but on average takes right amount suggested for her age.

SMS - not sure if there is another baby clinic locally that she can go to, so maybe will just have to nudge her in the direction of her gp, for a quick check.

thanks again for all your help!

Could it be possible that the previous weight (at 4.5m) was written down incorrectly so it seems like a bigger gain than it is? Because they couldn't check that afterwards without a time-machine iyswim.

I really dont think a baby could put on 1/2 a stone in 2 weeks - not unless he was being fed pureed pies!

It sounds like someone has weighed him incorrectly on one of the occasions. Actually 24lb at 5 months seems a lot - ds was that at a year?

I stand to be corrected but it sounds like something is a miss here.

GM - I know what you mean, my ds is almost 1yr and she is now about the same weight as he is (and he is a nice cuddly baby, not a skinny thing like ds1 was).

AA - even at 18lbs at 4.5 months they thought she was a heavy baby so they double checked her weight then, so reasonably sure that that is as good a weight measure as a baby clinic is going to do.

She really has put on a lot of weight in just a couple of weeks, seemingly from just eating (or should that be drinking if she is still not weaned?) and is a very big baby, that's why I was just wondering and hoping to see if there was anything that she should get checked out (or ask to be explicitly ruled out) if she sees a doctor.

My friend is very good at listening to the HV or Dr and doing what they say - am just aware that sometimes they can miss something so it is good to be aware of the other options. If nothing is wrong other than her ds putting on lots of weight that is fantastic - if on the other hand they miss something that they don;t see very often because they have attributed it to something common IYSWIM, she would be devastated.

My exclusively bf DD was about 24 pounds when I weaned her at 6 months so it is possible. She is definitely fat bless her but very long as well. At no point did she ever put on that much weight though - it was a steady weight gain.

Also if you compare to 1 year olds it looks like a really small difference but weight gain slows down so much once they get over six months. My DS at 2 years weighed about 35 pounds (I think) and he was really tall. They certainly dont continue at that weight (well I hope not lol).

Has she visibly put on weight? Presumably a 6 pound weight gain would be at least one size up in clothes or even two? Babies do have growth spurts and if it was three or four pounds then I have heard of that. If they have just had a feed or havent had a poo for a while they can be a bit heavier maybe lol.

If I were your friend I would be inclined to go back next week and see what the weight is like then? I would guess it was dodgy weighing the first time? In my DS book it looks as if he shrunk in height when he was little as HV measured him incorrectly once.