Low centile chart babies, did yours stay small?

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Hi, interested to hear if people whose babies on the 0.4, 2nd, 9th, 25th centile babies stayed small as they grew up, or perhaps have they had a growth spurt later into childhood etc. Or now they’re 7ft adults?!

My baby boy is ten months (and he wasnt premature) and has always been between 25 and 2nd centile but has now dipped to 0.4 after teething and not having an appetite. The health visitor isn’t worried but my mum anxiety has kicked in. I guess I’d like reassurance your kids are thriving! I’m trying to get food in him but he’s just not a big eater and I want to make sure I’m not impacting his adult height. Thanks in advance.

Yes, healthy baby boy born 8lb 6oz but he takes after my side of the family, very petite and is now almost 17 and just 5ft 5inch … he has been lowest percentile for growth/height almost all his life, he’s a little guy, like my brother/dad whereas his brother got his dad’s genes and is well over 6 foot … DNA is a weird thing

Ds's weight dropped off the chart completely in his first year. He was born around the 50th I think. He had hospital referrals and bloods tests and had an x-ray to determine bone age as he was tiny, but everything was normal.
He's now 18 and around 6ft. And he's that height despite have very disordered eating due to massive sensory processing issues and restricting food. He's still very thin though!
In our experience being very low or not even on the chart has had no bearing on his adult height.

Yes. Both DC have ended up on the centiles they were on a birth.

Mine stayed small but is perfectly healthy and thriving. She started on the 2nd centile, moved to the 0.4th and has fluctuated between 0.4th and 25th all her life. She’s 17 now and started school in baby size 5 shoes and now wears a 2.5 and age 13-14 clothes - saves a fortune as no vat on children’s shoes and clothes. Luckily she’s not into high heels and wears converse and docs which are 2/3 of the price of the adult versions. I really wish I hadn’t spent all that time worrying instead of enjoying her. Your little one will be fine.

It's normal for them to jump around a bit on the charts. What centile was he on at 2 weeks old? The new advice is to ignore birth centile and start at 2wo but no health visitor seems to follow this (even though it's printed right there in the red book!)

DS1 seemed to hover between the 9th and 25th and is a skinny but average height teenager now. He has never really liked eating and that seems to have stuck.

Mine has finished at just under 5ft, but no surprise as petiteness runs in the genes.

My 0.4th centile baby is now between 50th-75th centile at nearly 2. I had pregnancy induced hypertension and when we last saw her neonatal consultant (not prem but she had sepsis), he suggested that her growth in utero was likely affected by my BP and she's now catching up to her more natural centile (she is tall and Dh & i are both tall and broad). She didn't really gain anything though until after being fully weaned and then took to food amazingly well.

He started at 9th centile, at two weeks he was at 25th but then dropped back to 9 quickly and then was steady at 2nd for 7 months till now. I’m disheartened as he seems to be going down, randomly two weeks is the highest centile he’s ever actually been. Trying to give him nutritious foods but he’s just started nursery and teething and anticipating the nursery bugs also may do a number on appetite.

Thanks! Interesting it took till she was properly weaned, what age do you reckon? My partner and I are 5’4” and 5’7” so never expecting basketball player height but he’s always just not that interested in eating food yet, more playing with it.

Yes. 0.4 centile. Occasionally had a growth spurt but never made it to the 25th.

she’s a perfectly average 5’5 adult, as expected somewhere in between mine and dh’s heights.

was always tiny up until about 16 when her last pubertal growth spurt really hit.

My DD is nearly 7 and has stayed on the 9th centile quite consistently. She's petite for her age and the smallest in her class but thriving! According to the charts she will be shorter than both me and DH as an adult

My son was born under the 0.4th centile and stayed there throughout childhood. He is now 21 and is still slim and short in height. He was a incredibly healthy and energetic child and is a strong and healthy young man. He was just meant to be a naturally slim and small person I think.

I reckon really around 1yr. She started nursery at 10.5months and once she got settled in, her appetite really changed. I think maybe seeing the other bigger babies in the room sort of encouraged her along a bit?

DNA is a funny thing.

My DS7 went from the 50th at birth to the 99.6th at 4 weeks. He is now very tall for his age - around the 90th for height! But so skinny!

My DS1 was born on the 9th, went up to the 25th, back down 0.6th at one stage and is now on the 3rd!

Goodness only knows what height he will end up. Me and DH are not tall, but not particularly short either!

My DD was born 6lb4oz and was always almost falling off the bottom off the centile chart. Wouldn't breast feed and I was lucky if I could get an ounce of milk in her at a time from a bottle. GP was never worried and said she was just petite (neither DH or I are petite). Always in clothes smaller than her age. She's now 24 and a slender size 6/8.

I had a similar thing to your boy and dropped low at 2 years now seems to be quite average. I made myself stop looking cause we can't think them bigger or smaller so trying not to stress

My DD was born on her due date on the 2nd centile. Moved up to the 9th for a couple of years. Now age 12 she is around the 50th for weight and 91st for height. I think she will end up the same height as me, maybe fractionally taller.

DD (5yrs) was born at 20th centile, dropped to 9th straight after birth and then dropped to 2nd at around 2 months. By year old she was back on 9th for both height and weight. She's continued to be 9th for height and weight

DS (3yrs) born at 25th centile, dropped to 9th straight after birth. Continued at 9th for weight but was 2nd for height. He is now 9th for weight and height.

DD (1yr) was born at 9th centile, dropped down to 0.4th straight after birth. By 4 months was back to 2nd centile. At 10 month check she was 9th for height and weight. She is currently still 9th for weight but I've not measured her height recently.

My DD was 9th centile at birth and stepped down to 0.4. She's just tiny (as are we, her parents) Her weight is on 0.4 now but she's 3cm off yhe 0.4 line for height. Health visitor likes to have a fuss but apart from breaking out the stretching racks I'm not sure what she expects us to do 🤷‍♀️

My grandson was born at 7 lb 13 oz list went from 50% centile to 9 th due to issues with feeding. He is now 15 months old and on 75 th centile. He is a chunk!

DD born around 10th centile, she was more "average" by infants school, and reached the heady heights of tallest in her year at school at age 10.
Then she stopped growing. At 17, she's a small adult. And the second shortest in her year at school.

So her baby centile seems to have mapped to her adult centile, but she didn't get there in remotely a linear way.

My daughter as a baby was born at about the 50th centile for a 4 week premature baby but quickly slipped right down the centiles and at one point was on the 0.4th I think. HVs kept telling me she was obviously meant to be petite and I kept telling them no, I was a very tall, 'sturdy' child and my husband is a very tall adult - there was no way with her genetics she was meant to be small! She stayed tiny until about 18 months and then started to grow at a more rapid rate.

She's 6 in a few weeks and I recently weighed and measured her and checked her on the centile charts - 98th for both height and weight! Everybody we meet exclaims how tall she is!

Dd was under the 10th for weight when born but was just under 50th for length - she was long and very skinny. She now towers above her peers at 7 years old. She wears age 8-9 clothes otherwise everything is too short. She’s still slim, her clothes are baggy but not ridiculously so. You’d never know she has such a low birth weight.

DS1 was between the 9th/25th centiles until he was around 2. He's 8 now and on the 75th centile for height but still 9th for weight.

DS2 was 50th centile for weight and 9th for height until he was over 2, he looked very chubby! He didn't walk til he was 22 months. He's now something like 9th centile for height and 0.4th for weight

DS was born average but dropped and kept hovering around 25th for weight. He is still very slim, but off the top of the charts for height (wears size 12 at 9yo), so guess that's just his build.