-2 percentile, will he catch up?

[Cluuish14]

Hi all,

Hoping you can help, DS is having some issues growing, currently he's is lower than 0.4 on the percentile chart (-2), and although he is gaining weight it's not enough apparently to allow him to catch up to what he should be by the age of 2yrs.

I'm told if he doesn't improve it could affect his development and height as an adult. But what I wonder is does he need to do the catching up now, or will it happen naturally once he is on solids? As he has reflux the sickness could be a factor and from what I've read most reflux vanishes once the baby is on solids.

DS is being weighed every 2weeks, is on this super high calorie formula and we are having to almost force feed him every feed to get him to take enough milk (and that's before you factor in the sickness) and yet he still doesn't seem to be growing enough.

He is happy in himself, very alert and playful, and development wise seems to be where he should be for 10wks corrected age. Just wonder if letting him take things at his own pace is better.

Has anyone else experienced this with a preemie? Would love to hear some stories where the growth occurs naturally at a later age.

Sounds like you are doing a fab job 😊

There isn’t much more you can do that offer him His high calorie milk Often. Could you offer less per feed but more often so he’s getting the same amount but may bring up less?

If he’s alert and happy those are great signs.

Both mine were 8lber and at the same time 3 friends had babies 4-5 lbs and now you’d never know at the age of 4 which weighed 4lb at birth and which 8lb 😊

I really really wouldn’t worry yet. How premature was he at birth? My 26 weeker was on the 0.4th centile for ages and then ‘caught up’ by about 15 months. (He was still between the 2nd and 9th centile for actual weight). He’s now nearly 4 and is still on the 9th for weight and 50th for height. But my full term son is also on the 9th for weight and 75th for height so I produce not very heavy children.
It is far too early for everyone to panic about your son. Sounds like you are doing a fab job.

Thank you.
Yes we changed that about a week ago, so he has feeds as and when he wants them, little and often.
Very reassuring to hear about the birth weight difference, thank you for sharing.

@ChaBishkoot

I really really wouldn’t worry yet. How premature was he at birth? My 26 weeker was on the 0.4th centile for ages and then ‘caught up’ by about 15 months. (He was still between the 2nd and 9th centile for actual weight). He’s now nearly 4 and is still on the 9th for weight and 50th for height. But my full term son is also on the 9th for weight and 75th for height so I produce not very heavy children. It is far too early for everyone to panic about your son. Sounds like you are doing a fab job.

Thank you so much for sharing this, such a relief to hear. DS was a 30weeker and was 2.5lbs at birth. He is now 9lbs at 20weeks old (10wks corrected).

DD was 0.4 percentile at birth , she had fully caught up by around a year but sometimes it takes a little longer , he’ll get there , you sound like you’re doing everything you can !

My daughter was born at 50th percentile at 1lb14, dropped to 0.4 at various points and was around 2nd when she hit her due date. She’s now between the 9th and 25th at 2yo -small but not amazingly so.

Little and often was what changed it for us. She was on breast milk with fortifier. She went up 2 percentile lines in two months after we changed to feeding at least 2 hourly.

Similar story here too. My 32 weeker was 9th centile, and noticeably smaller than her peers until she was about 5 or 6. She's now in the bottom third of her year at school - both for height and weight - but by no means the smallest.

I was very worried when she was a baby, as I had to get her weighed every week in the early months. Don't think that helped either of us!

My 29 weeker son was 1lb 8 at birth so way way below the 0.4th.
He was just over 6 pounds at 6 months.
He hit the 0.4th centile just before his 2nd birthday (I made a cake to celebrate!)
He turned 13 last month and is now on the 96th centile and predicted to be 6 foot 4!

My first fell off the chart completely to be honest. He slowly caught up and is now completely average. It takes time and it can be hard not to worry. It can take years. I do wish looking back that I had not worried so much about it.