Dropping through the centiles

[purrpurr]

My DD has gone from 77th centile to 38th. She is 9 weeks old and formula fed. Is this common? My disaster-oriented brain is now hyperventilating and worrying that she will never grow again and will remain tiny baby size forever, gibbering away and needing her bum doing. Is she due a growth spurt? Can I offer her some lumps of butter to clean off her paws (wait, no, that's cats not babies) what can I dooooo? Panic? Not panic???

Breath.

Some babies are born at a higher centile than they 'need' to be, they slowly drop through the centiles until they find their line and stay there - they are fine and all is well.

Some babies have a problem that causes them to drop centiles and these babies need some help.

So which is yours? Has she been dropping centiles ever since birth? Does she feed well and happily or does she get upset at the bottle? Does she vomit? How much formula does she have in a day?

HUGS

Ahem, I meant BREATHE ofcourse.

FYI DS (also FF) dropped from the 25 centile to the bottom of the 2nd centile at the same age before we fully diagnosed his issues (cows milk protein intolerant which caused serious silent reflux and stomach issues so he refused to feed because it hurt too much). He's 10 months old now, back up to (almost) the 25 centile, weaning but still drinks loads of formula, happy and healthy (and ALMOST off the reflux meds too) but I well remember how terrifying it was...

Cripes Night that doesn't sound like it was an easy start for you guys. I'm not sure if there's anything wrong with DD. She eats enough formula for a 7 week old, so just a bit less than she should be? Her appetite doesn't seem to be increasing, though of course the heat doesn't help. She never seems to ask for food, so I seem to spend my days offering her the bottle every couple of hours and hoping she will take it. She often drinks hungrily, but will drink a disappointingly small amount. I then wondered if I was hampering her ability to develop a bigger appetite by always offering her the bottle, so I started offering it every three hours, or whenever she asked for it - whichever came first - and she just drank less and less and I got so worried I went back to offering her it all the time.

Certainly never had a feeding schedule of every 3-4 hours.

She was a good weight at birth - 8lbs 4oz - dropped a bit initially then piled it on, and then ever since I feel like I'm chivvying her along to eat. I thought babies were supposed to get hungry? Am I doing this whole thing wrong?

Hi purr purr. One of my Dc did this and went right down to 2nd centile where they remain (now 4). We had a lot of tests done but nothing wrong, just seems to be the way my Dc is meant to be. If you are concerned then ask for a referral to a paed. There are also specialist paed nutritionists who you can speak to in order to get some guidance about how to maximise the no of calories that go in - for instance there is a special high calorie formula which my Dc had.

Congratulations on your new baby! Welcome to the world of parenting - you will regularly be in a state of panic about one thing or another! www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/How%20can%20I%20tell%20if%20my%20baby?s%20thriving%20FINAL%20WITHOUT%20BLEED.pdf This page might help you with what to look for if you think your baby might not be getting enough milk. I think chances are that your baby's weight is just settling down and will plateau eventually - genetics are a major factor so if you and her father are on the smaller side then she will be too and things may even change again when she gets on to solids. Have a word with your health visitor though and she will probably be able to put your mind at rest xx

It wasn't a very happy time for us that's for sure!

Which bottles do you use? Have you tried going up to the next teat size? Even though the next size is labeled for 3 months (or 6 months depending on what bottle you use) it is still worth a try, prior to his other issues at around 6 weeks DS started to take such a long time over his bottles that he'd get bored halfway through and give up - when I upped the teat size he started draining bottles again and had far less wind too.

Regarding whether to offer every hour or two or to try to increase appetite by waiting I have no advise really, I was the same as you and tried both and neither worked!!

By all means try your GP and see what they say, in my experience though they won't do anything at this point and whilst she is still gaining weight (though dropping centiles) and is happy / not in pain and screaming you will probably jjust have to wait and see what happens. For us DS soon started actually loosing wait and still the GP was rubbish and told us to go away and come back in2 weeks :( at that point I drive straight to a and e, they were shocked by his weight loss and immediately started helping us so I hope your GP is better than ours but if you are really worried then don't hesitate to go to a and e.

Sorry not sure if this link works but if you google "NCT how can I tell if my baby's thriving" then it should come up ah the top of your search results x

It could well be that she is heading towards the right centile for her. How big are you and her dad? My DD went the other way. She was 25th centile for weight for her gestation and has tracked the 91st for height and 75th for weight since a few months old, courtesy of my tall DH. She is massive compared to my friend's DD who was over 10lb at birth, but has small parents. Do investigate the suggestions above, but it may well be her settling to where she should be.