High weight / low length percentile baby?!

[Goldendoodlelover]

Hi all - my just 8 month old was born on the 75th percentile and after some initial weight loss has been putting weight on like a champ, and is around 10.5kg which puts him on the 99th percentile. I measured his height for the first time today which wasn’t easy as he is so wiggly, but I think he’s around 66cm, which puts him on the 9th percentile (!!)

I’ve not seen a health visitor since January and I’m now panicking that I’ve been overfeeding him (he was combo fed til Feb and then only been on formula since then!)

I’m really surprised because I thought he looked tall compared to similar babies his age, and he’s in 9-12 month clothes which seem to fit him lengthwise. I get a lot of comments about what a ‘big boy’ he is but I don’t think he looks wildly out of proportion.

A quick Google search says that rapid weight gain may mean underlying health issues, but I can’t seem to tell what these might be?

I will see if I can visit the HV on Friday, but until then any advice much appreciated…

Both my DDs were the opposite - low weight / high length centiles (at one point 99th length and 2nd weight for DD2). But i always found that growth wasn't even. So she might have a big weight growth spurt and her weight centile shoot up, but then the length centile would sort of catch up a bit afterwards and it would even out a bit more. DD1 was being measured monthly as she was very poorly at birth, so the spurts were a bit more obvious to see because of the regularity of the measurements. I think you are absolutely doing the right thing to see the HV, especially as its a bit easier for them to measure length, but it might just be that he's had a weight growth spurt and is due a length one soon.

Edit to add - After 1yr, everything started to become a bit more consistent and she settled on a more consistent centile line (which was around 70th for both), which coincided with obviously weaning really getting sorted as well.

Mine was the opposite too. I think there will be a huge error in your length measurement as it’s very difficult to measure yourself and a few cm can make a big difference to the percentile. I wouldn’t worry if he looks overall in proportion.

Did you measure length or height? Height should only be used once they are over 2 and lengths are notoriously difficult to measure. My daughter had two lengths measured at the hospital 4 weeks apart by the same nurse and shrunk 4 cm in that time! Likely reason is the first was an over estimate and the second was an underestimate and she was probably about the same size in both!

At 2 my daughter was nearly 50th percentile for weight and 1st percentile for height which put her borderline overweight. At 12 months she was on the 25th percentile for length so she had dropped more than 2 percentiles for length/height in a year. Her paediatrician and dietician weren't concerned as she looked "normal" but we did have more frequent check ups for a few months to check she wasn't still dropping down the charts. She settled between the 25th and 50th percentiles for weight and 1st for height until 4 when she moved up to the 4th for length. She's nearly 5 now and her weight has plateaued a bit so she's now between the 9th and 25th for weight and 4th for height.

She's August born and is one of the smallest and youngest in the class but whilst there are children that are 10-15+ cm taller than her there are also quite a few a similar size to her and she doesn't let her size hold her back.

I think no k it’s probably best to take him to the baby clinic and get them to double check his weight and length, just so you’re sure. If it does turn out that he’s out of proportion then the HV can give some advice

Thanks all - rather embarrassing, my husband and I remeasured him the next day using a slightly different method and he is actually 6cm taller than we thought, which puts him between the 50th/75th percentile - so am feeling rather foolish but I think I understand now why in the UK we don’t measure length until they are two as it is really hard when they move so much! Think was just being a classic anxious FTM - he lost a lot of weight when he was born due to feeding issues so have over worried about his weight since!

It doesn't take much error in the measurements to get a very different result!

Definitely pay more attention to growing out of clothes than trying to measure lengths, you can check where they are based on the size of clothes when they grow out of one size and into another if you want a rough estimate for your anxieties, although it's not a perfect system. The warning sign that we hadn't noticed was my daughter was in 9-12 months for over a year! We did get the HV to measure her length once when she was a baby and that was around 5 months as she was still fitting in 0-3 clothes and based on those lengths we shouldn't remove her newborn insert in her car seat but she was starting to look ready for it to be removed. That length showed she was most probably could have the insert removed. Now she's older it's more apparent that she's shorter in the body than she is legs and arms which probably explains why she was often in clothes when she was above the length for the clothing. She's nearly 5 and is in 3-4 trousers, 2-3/3-4 long sleeved tops and 1.5-2 for short sleeved tops! A lot of her baby clothes fitted based on her torso size.

I think this is very likely a measuring error.

does your GP offer a weight clinic for babies? If so you can pop along to have his weight and length measured accurately.