20 week old baby girl weighs 20lb

[Whilewetry123]

Hi there I am looking for some advice as I feel like the worst mum in the world. I took my 20 week old daughter to get weighed and she weighs 20lb already. She does have chunky legs but doesn’t look overly chubby and is still in 3-6month clothes. They didn’t measure her length. She is so so happy and reaching all milestones.
she was 7lb 8 when born so her weight has gone up much quicker than it should have.
The HV said I need to take her back in another month to check her weight again and then they will decide how to proceed. I just feel absolutely devastated that I might have overfed her and it’s keeping me awake at night that it’s going to cause her issues.
she currently has 6, 6oz bottles in 24 hours (usually she leaves a little bit so is probably having 5.5oz). She eats every 3 hours and always has. She sleeps great on a night
I’m just so upset and can’t stop thinking about it.
any advice welcome! Thanks so much

My baby was born 6lbs, and was an absolute chunk within six months because he ate well. He had what he should have had, but he was a unit. He’s now a lean toddler charging about.

Unless you’re dangerously over feeding your baby, which you’re not, I really wouldn’t worry. Just laugh at the photos with her when she’s a skinny 18 year old.

My dd was over the 99th centile from 6 months -2.5 years we were given hell about it to the point they were saying some pretty awful things and going down a safeguarding route.
The thing is, in our family the girls are all massive from a few months old and then at 2.5-3 suddenly slim down drastically and then grow really tall ! So all the older girls and adult women in our family are actually at the lower end or borderline underweight for bmi. I literally had to get photos out and show the HV and GP that this is a phenomenon within our family so the centiles don’t apply to us !!

The ops baby isn't 3 months though, she's 20 weeks which is about 4 and half months.

I also didn't think you could over feed at this age as they refuse to drink. She sounds absolutely fine btw.
I would move to 4 hourly feeds though if she'll do it as it naturally leads to usual mealtimes when you start weaning.

I don’t know, it does seem pretty heavy for 3 months.

Op’s baby is 20 weeks though?
Be more confident, op. You have a healthy, happy, thriving baby. You’re doing great. You can’t bring up babies by number. Weights, heights, centiles, fine as a reference if there are obvious problems, but there aren’t. As pp have said, it’ll all even out once your dc is mobile.

She's not three months old, she's 4.5 months.

It's not an excessive weight for her age at all. Yes, it's on the heavier side of the centiles but that's not necessarily a problem. Sometimes babies are born small and then catch up to where they are supposed to be. What centile was she on at 2 weeks old? How tall are you and partner, OP?

As long as there is no incorrect feeding behaviour such as trying to jiggle the last little bit out of a bottle, early solids, adding solids to bottles, over-concentrating formula, and there's no gastric distress e.g. excess wind, pain, reflux etc then it doesn't sound like OP is doing anything wrong?

I wonder if there is even some sexism at play here - it's the exact same weights as DS2 and everyone thought it was wonderful that he was so big (He is now a perfectly normal, slim 4 year old - picture attached.)

This is a good article about weight charts. It's American but most of it is transferable:

www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/growth-chart-accuracy.html

Hungry baby formula doesn't contain more calories than normal formula, it just contains a different casein:whey ratio so it sits in the tummy longer and is slower to digest, hence "keeping them full" for longer.

Agreed it should not be used as a baby's main feed/diet, but it's not likely to cause excess weight gain. If anything it ought to do the opposite (I would stick to first stage infant formula).

I myself was a proper chubster as a baby. Rolls, pot belly the lot. I was a size 4 at age 20 and a size 10-12 after 3 kids. Please don't worry - but do keep an eye on case of a hormone imbalance or something so if they do tests, it will just be to rule out any of these. Meanwhile enjoy her.

My son looked like the Pilsbury Dough Boy pretty much from birth to 18m. Huge. His rolls had rolls. I spent my life cleaning in between the chub.

He thinned out as he approached 2, and now he's 7 he's lean and muscly. He's always been in charge of how much he wants to eat/drink (restricting sugar, but that's all).

Growth charts were originally designed to describe the growth of a bunch of healthy kids, NOT to dictate how other kids outside that group should be growing! It was not originally intended as a standard!

All of mine were similar weights at that age. As soon as they started moving they burnt it all off. They are now 15, 13 and 10 and are very healthy weights.

concentrate on healthy weaning, lots of different veg, no added sugar in anything and lots of opportunity for movement - you are doing really well!

My ebf son was 5lb at birth and 20lb at 3 months. He slimmed down when he started crawling.

How are you both getting on now @Whilewetry123?

I wouldn’t take any of the advice on here about starting solids early or trying to stretch feed to 4 hours. Keep doing what you are doing, if baby is on the heavy side now it will melt off once they get mobile. Stretching to 4 hourly feeding risks them waking at night.

If you're feeding on demand and baby is taking in the milk you aren't doing anything wrong. I think they want to check there aren't issues like underactive thyroid etc which even if it does happen can be easily treated so please don't stress.

I have the opposite. My 14 month old is only 17lbs. I am surprised your LO is still in 3-6 month clothes and mine is busting out of her 9-12 month. But i guess it depends on their height as well. Mine also never stops moving, not for a second, not even in her sleep! you'll prob find when he stops moving he will even out anyway. won't be too long for that now

It’s toward the top of the centiles, but still in them.

www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Boys_0-4_years_growth_chart.pdf

Hey @Whilewetry123

My baby girl will be 8 weeks on Thursday - she weighed 10 pounds last Monday and yesterday she is weighing at 14 pounds! 🫣

Please don't worry - HV can be so ignorant. All babies are different. X

Hi, I know it’s been a few years, but I’m having this worry with our HV and my son now and it’s causing me such anxiety.

Can I ask if anything medical came from it? How is your little one now? :)

My son (mentioned above) went from the 24th centile to the 96th in his first 3 months. He’s nearly 7 and is on the 98th centile for height and the 50th for weight. He’s a beanpole.