Small baby born at 0.4 centile - growth question

[Angeldelight21]

Hi everyone,

A bit of a background. My DD was born small with low birth weight at 36 weeks due to placenta issues, blood preassue, blood flow etc.
Baby's weight was dropping from 50th centile to 3rd centile within weeks during pregnancy so the consultant decided baby needs to come out at week 36.

We are both tall with my hubby and most of our family is tall. Im currently breastfeeding.

If you were in a similar situation, did your baby put on weight and caught up with the peers?

DD was also born small, although in her case not early and we don't know why. The pediatrician told me that they expect small babies to catch up with the rest in general.

DD has caught up a bit. She's now 1, and has been between the 2nd and the 9th percentile since she was about 4 months IIRC. She was below the 0.4th when she was born.

So my experience is that she's caught up a little but is still on the small side. But as I say, I gather from the pediatrician that it's more likely that they'll catch up even more.

My children weren’t as small but I did have growth scans for various other issues. I also had low Papp-a in both pregnancies which can be seen in conjunction with poor placental function.

First baby was born after a spontaneous labour at 41 weeks. Weighing 7lb11oz she then hovered around the 50th centile for her first few months before growing exponentially. At 2 she is around 80th for weight and 75th for height.

Baby number two was born by c section at 40 weeks and weighed 6lb13; then hovered around the 25th centile for her first few weeks. At 4 months she is now 60th centile for weight and unsure of ‘height’ but I’ve had to put her in the odd 6-9m vest due to her body length.

Both were / are exclusively breastfed.

Basically, in my experience, they stay near their birth centile at first then settle on their own centile after a couple of months. I think I DID have the poor placental function associated with low Papp-a and would have had big babies without it rather than the small-average sized babies that I did have.

Dd1 was low birthweight, few feeding issues to start with due to horrific reflux but soon sorted and by 3 months was a little chunk. She was breastfed. She was always petite though and smaller than her peers. Drs never had any concerns though.
Now 18 and despite me being 5'6 and her dad 5'10 she is just under 5'2.

DS1 spent years on that 0.4 percentile. At 13 he's now one of the tallest in his class, is a competitive swimmer and perfectly healthy.

You just have to block out the many people who ask you if you feed your child 🤦🏻‍♀️

He was always very slim, he's built like a swimmer and has a massive metabolism. He's gone up on the percentiles to just below 50, probably down to muscle.

He was breastfed, when he started on solids it went slowly. I spent a lot of time worrying about his weight for the first few years. When I finally saw a sensible GP who told me to look at my child, not his weight. He was active, happy and had plenty of energy, he was doing just fine.

My boy was born at 39 weeks on the 2nd percentile, this was also due to high blood pressure. He’s been catching up and is now just below the 25th percentile at 3 months

My ds was on the 25th centile at birth so not too small, but dropped to the 3rd centile by 4 weeks. Exclusively breastfed. He did start to put on weight and by 12 months he was up to the 75th centile, then by 3 he was on the 98th which is where he stayed. Has just hit 6 foot at 14yo

Mine did. She 1as 1.96 kilos at birth, 39 weeks, and the placenta had pretty much given up. She was lucky to make it out when she did.

She lost weight for the first week after she was born, and stayed below the 9th centile for weight until she was about 12. (DH is naturally v slim anyway so not a concern). Heightwise, she is now an adult and 5'6" which is within the estimated height range based on mine and DH's heights. She's a normal weight now too.

So basically she did eventually catch up with where she should have been, but it took a few years.

My son was below 0.4th at term had lots of tests all fine.
He stayed there till 5 ish always smallish but now 13 is taller than average.
I was also 4lbs at term and was small ealry childhood and caught up similar age. I'm now 5 ft 4 and a bit chubby

When I finally saw a sensible GP who told me to look at my child, not his weight. He was active, happy and had plenty of energy, he was doing just fine.

I took DD for her 6 week check, and it was the first time I'd seen a medical professional who didn't make a massive deal out of her weight, just said something like, "Some babies are going to be the small ones, she seems perfectly healthy." It was such a relief. I don't think the pediatricians and midwives I'd seen up to that point meant to worry me, but the way they'd reacted had made me think she was bound to have something seriously wrong. And so far, she's had nothing wrong at all (though she's had a few checks, like an ultrasound of her heart, to rule out causes of her being so little).

My DD was born at 36 weeks due to slow growth/IUGR. She weighed 1.61kg.

At 8 weeks - 3.31kg
At 5 months - 5.5kg
At 6 months - 6.38kg
At 8 months - 7.71kg
At 1 year - 8.63kg

Now at 20 months she’s 10.3kg so been tracking around 40th centile since 7 months (by adjusted age) so still little but doing fine. I kept waiting and waiting for her to ‘catch up’ but she never really has, I guess she was always meant to be small! She’s also very short, still in 12-18 months clothes.

My partner was only 3lbs when he was born at 6 months. He is 6ft 4 now!

My eldest was born at term but small weighing 5lb. He didn't drop any weight at all and is a very skinny 18 yr old now but no health issues.
With the others I had growth scans as they couldn't determine why he was so tiny. My next three all hovered around the 5/6 pound weight but also had no weight loss after birth and picked up weight really quickly.

During pregnancy DS was tracking along 25th percentile until near the end, looked like he hadn't grown so I was induced at 38 weeks. He was 9th percentile born and in his first weeks dropped below 0.4th. After a feeding plan etc he's now just above 0.4th and looks like he's gonna follow that line from now. So he hasn't necessarily caught up but he is now following a line and growing well, albeit small

Yes, born at 37 weeks for the same reason. She was 4lb 8oz and when we saw her paediatrician at 18 months she had completely caught up and is where she should be. Enjoy your baby :)

Dc4 was born at 39 weeks weighing 4lbs 10oz, and on the 0.2 centile. The cord was failing however it was missed repeatedly with scans. She struggled with feeding, and feeding plan in the early weeks. I couldn’t get her to latch so she was bottle fed expressed milk after cup & syringe. She took a few weeks to build her strength to feed, I would wake her every hour to put a few mls in her and keep her warm. At about 4 months she really started feeding and went to the 25th. Never looked back after weaning. She is 4 now and small, but is very athletic and into sport. She grazes tiny meals throughout the day and is a cheese monster. My other 3 dc were tiny babies and are all above average for height and skinny bigger than their peers. They catch up in their own time.

DD was born at 36 weeks and on the 0.4 centile. She remained small, when she started school at 4 I had to order special small uniform as the age 3-4 drowned her. She started secondary school in age 9 uniform. She's now 15 and has finished growing, she is 5'2" and a size 6.

But, as the saying goes, she may be small but she is fierce. She competes in showjumping competitions and plays football for the local academy girls team. Until she was 13 she was the only girl playing in a boys football team (she then switched to a girls team). She also plays hockey and a bit of rugby and runs cross country. Yes she's little but she's fit, strong and healthy. I wish I'd known when she was a baby and everyone was constantly concerned about her weight that she was just meant to be little and that it was just fine.

My eldest boy was at 3% at birth at 32 weeks. He stayed smaller than average till about 10. Now at 25 he’s 6 foot and climbs mountains!

Ladies,
Thank you for sharing your stories.

Can I ask when did you introduce solid food and if a GP/dietitian adviced to feed the baby with anything special, high calorie food etc ?

Thank you

I started weaning Dc4 at about 7 months as she couldn’t support her own head well and wasn’t interested until then. No special dietary advice just a good balance and I used full fat of everything and still do with mine.

I did baby lead weaning starting at 6 months, but I can't say he will have had significant nutrition from food until well past a year old.

My baby had to be induced at 37 weekends to IUGR. He was 29cm and 4lb 9oz when he was born. He was so so tiny!

The first 3 months maybe, he was still a tiny baby. But by the time he was 5 months old he was 17lb in comparison to my DD who reached 17lb when she was 10 months, and she was born 7lb 1oz

My daughter was 2lb4oz when she was born, her triplet brothers were just over 3lb. All had iugr. They're now adults and they are all shorter than average, but happy and healthy.

DS was induced at 35 weeks due to blood pressure / pre eclampsia issues. He was on the 25th centile but then plummeted down to the 0.4. We ended up under a paediatric consultant for "Failure to Thrive".

He's now an adult, 5'11", so slightly shorter than DH (6'1") and DS2 (6'2") but I'm only 5'5" so that seems reasonable.

@Angeldelight21

Hi everyone,

A bit of a background. My DD was born small with low birth weight at 36 weeks due to placenta issues, blood preassue, blood flow etc.
Baby's weight was dropping from 50th centile to 3rd centile within weeks during pregnancy so the consultant decided baby needs to come out at week 36.

We are both tall with my hubby and most of our family is tall. Im currently breastfeeding.

If you were in a similar situation, did your baby put on weight and caught up with the peers?

DN wasn’t on the centile charts at 30 weeks. Tall parents which is why he was so big length wise - he looked taller than most babies in the NICU. He’s 6 now and is by far the tallest in his year. Heavy too but it’s all muscle and you can see his ribs so there’s no doubt he’ll be as tall as his parents. But he wasn’t exclusively breastfed - he had to have a special high protein formula to supplement.

Forgot to add my DS is average size for his age now.