When do IUGR babies catch up?

[Iggy24]

Hi, I’m looking for a bit of encouragement and guidance from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

My baby was diagnosed with IUGR during the third trimester and I delivered her via c section at 34 weeks back in December.

She was born at 3lb 4oz and on the 2nd centile. Once she was home from NICU, she developed cows milk allergy and severe reflux so we had to stop her high calorie formula and just continued with breastmilk. This meant she dropped below 0.4 percentile. Fast forward to now months she has maintained on the 0.4 centile but feels tiny. She is nearly 8 months (6.5months corrected) and only weighs 9lbs 4oz. She isn’t skinny, but is little. We are under paediatrician care and have been referred to a geneticist, which I’ve been advised is really to rule everything out, rather than a concern. However, the wait times are long and I worry myself daily about her size…

Has anyone been in a similar situation with a small baby that has eventually shown signs of catch up? When did this happen? How small was your baby?

I appreciate many will tell me to try and not worry, and to wait for my appointments to come through, and I’ve tried everything I can to keep calm (including therapy!) but I would really appreciate anyone sharing similar experiences to help ease my worries, if possible :)

thank you! Xx

My girl had IUGR and was born 5lb 12oz at 37+6 as the growth scans were wrong and they didn't pick up she was 3rd centile (was last told she was 23rd!). She's only 9 weeks so I can't give an experience with an outcome but from my research it seems they look to fully catch up around 2 years. She's gaining weight well now and just fitting newborn clothes. I worry all the time about how small my girl is, it's all I ever hear when people see her. It's so scary!

DD was born symmetrically under the 0.4th and then plummeted like a stone losing 40% of her birthweight. I have no idea how she survived.

Regional Children's Hospital continually suspected Silver Russel and tested for many other nasty metabolic disorders. She was classed as very severe failure to thrive and was not expected to survive. Specilaist peadiatric dietician sorted out various fortifying top ups to add to EBM to syringe feed her. She was so small she had to be feed every two hours. (Tiny stomach) These had to collected from regional hospital for her first year, then she was switched into a very high calorie weaning diet by the dietician. At 12 months she finally hit 12 lb and fitted 0-3 month old clothes.TBH she wore out her under 5lb prem baby clothes rather than grew out of them. I had to buy three lots of upto 7lb for the same reason. Finding shoes for her was a nightmare. She did not fit into first crawler shoes till she was 2. her first school uniform would have fitted a two year old and had to be specially made. Most other clothes I have made a saving as they last so long.

She stayed dinky and under 0.4th till she reached 12 then she had a growth spurt. She has not caught up with her peers but has stayed on track with her own growth curves. She remains petite but feisty…..very very feisty. She loves having her pick of any petite clearance clothes and shoes in sales. She laughs when she buys VAT free kids clothes! She also loves being able to eat whatever whenever and not worry about weight gain. As a young adult she is still small and looks far far younger than her age. Great for bus fares bad for clubbing.

From experience a child’s health matters far more than size. If your lovely DD is following her own growth curves try not to over worry. Children’s Hospitals have very specialist charts for tracking children like my DD that can show minuscule gains. The common centile charts exist to try and pick up on children who might be struggling for very rare reasons. It sounds like your DD might simply be the child at the very edge of normal for the centile charts and just needs a closer eye kept on her .If like my DD she did turn out to need a bit of extra support and care to thrive then that is put in place very fast.

I hope all goes well for you both and that like the majority your DD catches up to where she would have been by the time she is two.

Blimey @triballeader that is one heck of a journey you have both been on and I’m so pleased to read she is thriving in her own way. My DD, while still young is also feisty. She was even described as feisty in the NICU 😂. Thank you for sharing your story, it helps to hear that even when things do feel scary and are, that there can be light at the end of the tunnel — and it isn’t always down to a specific condition or syndrome. I’m not big myself, so she was never going to be tall or naturally heavy but there’s always such an emphasis on weight and centiles that I think adds to the anxiety and worry. I try my best for that not to be felt by her. I love your DDs attitude ❤️.

@magneticmum sounds like your little one is catching up already 🙏🏼 I hope she continues on the upward turn and wish you both the best. The early days always feel particularly worrisome.

xx

I have a 34 weeker. She was also iugr and under the 0.4 centile at birth. She fairly quickly reached around the 25th centile (where she was at my 20 week scan before things went wrong with my pregnancy) and stayed there. I don't know where those 0-24 centile kids are though as she was the smallest in the class until around age 7. Since then she has stayed petite but is no longer the smallest.

The emphasis exists yes BUT it exists to try to locate the teeny handful of kids who could be struggling to thrive with rare reasons. Having had four kids there can be periods where they seem to dip and dive over time as well as leap ahead. each child grows and develops at their own pace. Prems often take a bit of time to catch up hence corrected ages. For growth charts its consistent flat lining and continued falling through centile or over rapid shooting through centiles that acts as a flag for Drs to look at closely.

Its normal for Drs to err on the side of caution and keep an eye on any baby who MIGHT be small or very large or could be failing to thrive as no Dr wants to risk missing something they could help with that turns out to be rather rare. Most of the time it’s simply that a child has the kind of genes that meant they would be small. I am average but my mum was petite and also born small.

DS was a 0.4th percentile 36 weeker. He stayed on the 0.4th percentile until he was established on solids and I gave him a heavily fortified diet. He showed signs of beginning to catch up by 11 months or so but the paediatrician wasn’t fully satisfied until 18 months. He’s been on the 25th percentile for height and between 25th-50th for weight since then.

I used to get dispirited by reading posts on here from people whose IUGR babies shot up in the first few months. The consultant always told me they want to see catch up growth in the first two years.

I know this post is quite old but thought I’d add to it.

My son was born small for gestational age at 34 weeks (3lb 10). We saw a paediatrician at 2 for something else and they noticed he was still small even though my husband is 6ft 3 and I’m 5ft 6. They referred us to an endocrinologist.

They tested for growth hormone deficiency and genetic testing for RSS but nothing was found.

By 4 he still hadn’t caught up so qualified for growth hormones under the small for gestational age diagnosis. He’s been on them a year and grown 13cm! From 2nd percentile to 42nd. He’ll continue on them until he’s fully grown.

I’d ask for a referral to an endocrinologist if the genetic tests don’t identify anything.

Thanks @April88 ! My LG is still so tiny and she’s tested negative for RSS, a few other genetic tests and now we’re just in the final stages of genome sequence testing (although they do take a while!). Of course I hope they all come back clear but either way it looks like growth hormone may be on the cards and I believe endo has been looped it but we haven’t yet seen them. So pleased to read it’s had such a positive impact. How has it been giving him the injections?

That’s good then that you’ll potentially see the endo once you’ve had all the tests.

How old is she now?

He still isn’t a fan 😂 it doesn’t seem to hurt him when we do it but he’s very reluctant still. But for the growth he’s had, it’s definitely been worth it.