How much weight did your breastfed baby gain?

[Coffeeandbourbons]

In the first 5 weeks.

DS was born 7lb13 so quite an average weight, he lost 5% and was back to birth weight by the time he was about 8 days old. At his weigh-in last week (when he was 5 weeks old) he weighed 11lb1.

This seems like a huge gain to me - is it normal? My last baby was born quite small and while she gained weight fine, it was nowhere near this fast.

His 0-3 clothes are already getting too tight but it seems ridiculous he could be in 3-6 at 2 months old.

Looking for some reassurance I suppose!

DS1 (now 18 and 6' 4" 🙈) was 9lb 7oz at birthday and 10lb 2oz at his first weigh-in a week after leaving hospital.

My grandson is just under 20lb at 15 weeks! Chunky Monkey...
7lb 2oz at birth but 3 weeks early..EBF...

My son lost no weight in hospital and had gained 3oz in the first two days, born 9lb. Never fitted into new born, 3.5 weeks in 0-3, was in 12-18 by 6 months. Rocketed off the charts, despite chronic reflux. Paediatrician claimed I made “jersey double cream” Ds now nine is normal height and weight.

DD was 7lb7oz at birth, she lost just over 10% and wasn't back to birth weight till just after 2 weeks. She is 14 weeks now and 11lb 2oz.

Where are you all getting baby weighed? DS is 4 weeks and EBF but I just can't get him weighed! The HV did it on day 8, then nothing. I've been to family clinics and docs but was told they stopped weighing babies after covid 😒
I want to know if he's gaining. He was born 9lb 6oz and straight into 0-3 clothes. He seems bigger to me but a little reassurance would help.

Dd1 never lost and gained a lb a week for the first 7 weeks. She was born at 7lb 7oz and had doubled her birthweight by 8 weeks old 🤣 my other two were much slower to gain, but they weren't breastfed. Maybe my milk is very calorific 🤣

Thank you everyone seems like there’s a wide range of normal. It’s just odd to have two such different babies! Google also suggested an endocrine disorder which panicked me as I have one (it’s random though and can’t be passed on) 🤨

@Makingamess4212 he was weighed at a routine midwife appointment when they signed us off and over to the health visitor last week! At the GP surgery.

I've been told DS won't get weighed again unless I have a health concern 😕 really unimpressed.

Don't worry op. My Dd is now about to turn 25 and has no health issues, and is a petite size 6 now.

DD lost over 10% in her first week, but she was a C section baby and they weigh heavy at birth because of the drugs. Then she stayed looking like a skinned rabbit til she was three or so. EBF, if it's relevant.

DS gained from day one and looked like the Pilsbury Dough Boy! Absolutely massive despite also being EBF and having allergies. Totally different.

Also the scales are not always accurate. They get checked and adjusted periodically, but they can be out by quite a long way.

My ebf DD gained 4lbs exactly between birth and 7 weeks.

My bf DD was quite low birth weight, but quickly became ridiculously chubby, she's a very slim 7 year old. I say this because honestly don't worry about it, just feed on demand. Once they start moving it all changes. Enjoy the chubby baby fat rolls!

Sounds fine to me. Both of my ebf babies were born fairly unremarkable weights (6lb13 and 8lb8) but they both shot up to 98th percentile and stayed there until they started crawling. My family joke I must have gold top breastmilk and it’s basically cream 😂

We basically skipped 6-9 month clothes as they were growing so quick we didn’t get any use out of them (well before they were actually aged 6-9 months iyswim)

DD is almost 3 and is fairly petite now, DS is 9 months and much less of a fatty as he’s on the move ALL DAY and burning a lot more energy, I think he’s going to be taller than his sister though so he might just carry it differently.

I found it reassuring that they were chunky babies as if they got ill and went off their food a bit they had a bit of reserves to call upon

Use the growth charts in the red book, that will show you if baby is flllowing their percentile line or not.

You can go and weigh them at weekly health visitor clinics usually, we were always told to do it once a month

I believe the medical consensus is that BF babies generally put on weight more slowly than Ff babies. It doesn't mean there not getting sufficient nutrition. Remember the nutritional value of your milk is far superior to the formula. As long as you can cope with being available 24/7. Maybe baby could have the odd bottle? My 1st dc loved bf for years but enjoyed the odd bottle of formula too. Mixing it up is easy once your supply is established.

DS gained a tonne of weight between age 2-3 months. He was a premature, skinny baby (2.5kg), and by the time he was three months old he was definitely fat (skin rolls on his thighs, creases at his wrists, etc). Weighed over 5kg at 3 months, from what I remember.

Stayed fat for about 6 months, weight fell off when he moved onto solids. Though that also coincided with him moving about more, so could have been that as well. Stocky but not fat as a toddler, actively skinny by age 3.

My dc2 gained a pound a week from birth until about 8 weeks, and that was with posterior tongue tie and puking constantly 😆

My little one was born at 8lb 3oz. Lost 5% in the first few days but gained it back by the 10 day check.
We had his 6-8 week GP check on Wednesday at 7+2 weeks and he’s now 12lb 5oz (exclusively breastfed). I worry about him not gaining enough (though he’s still tracking on 75th centile so I have no reason to worry) so hoping to take him to the HV drop in once a month to get weighed 🤞🏼

Your baby sounds to have similar growth patterns to ds1. However, ds1 was born very tall and he is still the tallest boy in class, by a long run. I have been asked if I'm sure of his age multiple of time.
You need babies shorter than the average and some taller than the average.

If you concern about your child health then seek medical advice from trained professionals.

They are all different, are you quite small framed? I think I had smallish (well, average/smaller side of average) babies and then they grew heaps in the first few weeks because they are fairly tall once they get bigger. I tended to find especially with DS2 and DS3 that they went through all the "baby" sizes ahead of their actual age and then it sort of evens out at about age 3-4. Although actually DS2 has just had another massive growth spurt at 4.5 and all his age 4-5 stuff is looking short and he fits better into 5-6.

I like the European system where it's done by height instead actually, that seems to make more sense, as DS2 has just hit 110cm and that is the max for age 4-5. I didn't get a birth length for DS1 but DS2 was 52cm and DS3 54cm, the max size for newborn is 50cm so these only fitted DS2 (and DS1 actually) for a matter of days and DS3 not at all. Up to 1 month is 56, and 0-3 months is 62cm.

I read that birth weight isn't really considered relevant for ongoing growth measurement any more because they think that too many things can affect it one way or another and then many babies "catch up" or "catch down" to where they are supposed to be.

Mine absolutely stacked the weight on breast feeding. He was born 8lb 6oz , lost quite a bit by day 5 (went down to 7lb 13oz) then by day 10 he was 8lb 11oz!!!
He was soo chubby and about 21lbs by 5 months. From about 1 he started slimming out and now he's 16 months and all the rolls have gone . I miss those chubby legs. He still breast feeds but mainly solids now

I don't remember specific weights but my almost EBF (one bottle a week) baby went from 75th percentile at birth to 98th percentile within the first few weeks. He never lost any weight in the week after the birth. He was born 99th percentile for height and maintained that so he never looked chubby.

My first baby bf and gained 1lb per week. Birth weight was 8lb4oz. My second baby again bf and gained 4oz per week -bw 10lb4oz. Both fed well and the first one slept through the night from 10 weeks of age. The second one slept from 10pm-6am from about a week old. I was very lucky. At the time the mw told me to wake her to feed more during the night but I figured as she was gaining weight she was taking what she needed so I ignored the advice.

My son was 8lbs15oz at birth, weighed exactly the same at 5 days, 10lbs 4oz at 10 days and 13lbs exactly at 6 weeks. He was last weighed a couple of weeks ago at 20 weeks and was 18lbs.

Ds1 would often gain a pound a week.. he was huge!!

He's now 7 and as skinny as a rake!