Babies Who Are Born Big But Then Slide Down The Dreaded Percentiles

[fionas]

I'm must wondering how many of us are in the same situation.

DD was 8lbs 10oz when she was born so not huge, but biggish. After that, she slid down the percentiles which initially caused the hospital much concern but didn't faze my lovely MCHN (so me neither) too much.

She's now nearly 17 months old and not even 10kg. So she's gone from the 90th percentile when she was born to about the 10th percentile now.

Now I'm the first one to say to other mums who say they're worried about their baby's weight/percentiles - "oh, don't worry, they're just a guide, someone's got to be in the lowest percentile, she looks fine etc. etc."

And I'm not worried - I'm just curious why would a baby be born big and then turn out to be skinny. I was borderline for gestational diabetes but not officially GD so obviously that could have something to do with it. And my MCHN said that some women just grow really big placentas and big babies and then the baby gets back down to what they should have been genetically.

[Pandora]

DS was 95th percentil for length and weight at birth.
after about 6 months he was, and has stayed, at 50% percentil for weight and 75% for height.

So not slipped a huge amount, but not the giant we were expecting!

He was never "big" though, even at 10lb he was long and lean.

[{sarah}]

Zander was a chubby baby, born at 8lb 14oz and now at almost four he's around 14.5kg & you can see his ribs! Everyone has told me that as long as his height is growing at the same rate then all is good, so if he was growing really tall & in the 90th percentile for height but 10% for weight then there'd be a concern. I'm curious to how Juliette will turn out because she was born at 9lb 14oz and now is still in the 90th percentile for height & weight.

[suse]

Euan was 9pd4oz/4.2kg at birth (two weeks overdue), 95th percentile for weight and height, and at 12 months was 10.38kg. He's still on the 75th percentile for height, but on the 50th for weight, and I suspect that he'll drop a few more percentiles for weight because as he is running around more, he's got really lean and skinny like his dad. He was always long and lean, but for a while he got a little chubby, it all just fell off as soon as he started really moving.

It's quite usual to see kids really slim out when they hit toddlerhood, although I'm sure that the charts take this into account to some extent.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

DS was born 50 for weight and 75 for height.

He's now 9th for both - or was in June when I last had him weighed and measured. No worries here. DH and I are both slim, so DS obviously is. We've all seen DS run around so he's burning off energy, they do check he eats. Bit more worried about the height; I'm off the top of the girl scale and DH is 75th on the boy scale (adult, age 18-20, in the baby books). But DH was a midget then just shot up, as did a cousin of mine who is now 6'4 so we're not worried about that too much either. Just so long as he puts on weight and grows and we're not starving him (ie he has loads of energy) then it's fine.

[feeb]

DS was born at 8lb 13oz which i think from memory was on 75 centile.

He lost a heap more than 10% and has been slow to put on weight since at 5 months was 6520grams which was 10th centile (before that wg had been below 10th.


Just a funny thing that annoyed me as MCHN chart/blue book says one centile, GP when she charted on computer said another and pead had a diff chart again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Use the same bloomin chart and TRY using the WHO Breastfeeding chart!!!!!!!!!!!

[CrystalBoo]

DD was 10lb 2oz at birth. She was a slow grower right from the start. Now at 18m, she is still shy of 11kg, though still retains the chubbiness she had when born. I think she will just be short. It's never worried me, in fact, the paed told us at her 6wk check-up that it was normal for big babies to slide way down the percentile scale. I start to glaze over when nurses or doctors start filling in her chart and pointing out where she's at.

[Trillian]

I'm another one who grows fantastically chubby babies, but who even out during the first 12mths. Although my first who was on the 90th centile for weight and above the 97th for length when he was born did stay way above the top centile band during toddler-hood, but now he is an average weight, slightly-above-average-height 7yo. My second was delightfully average from the word go LOL and is still on the 50th centile by my guess. My last two were different - both were well over the 97th centiles for weight and length at birth (another DD and DS) but now my DD is only on the 10th centile for weight at 4.5yo but on the 90th for height (she still wears a skirt in a size 00 that she got as a toddler - that's how skinny she is!) and my DS is on around the 50th for weight at 15mths and over the 97th for height. My last two are taking after their fathers side of the family (his maternal side) well and truly in the long and lanky stakes - DH is 6ft neat and very lean and his brother is 6'4 and also lean and their maternal Uncles are both 6'5 and lean as whips.

I can vouch for the placenta thing too - my placenta with my 4th baby was massive - it didn't even fit in the bowl they had it in before they took it away, it was hanging over the sides and when I asked to see it my middy spread it all out and it was the size of a dinner plate - I'm not kidding!

I've always thought that I just grow big babies and once they are born they grow how they are genetically meant to grow because they were all fed the same way and in the same environment etc. I think my eldest will be tall, but heavier built like my side of the family (who are all very tall and stocky), I think my 2nd will be a bit shorter (like me LOL) and average weight, but my youngest two will definately be bean poles - I do mean that in the nicest possible way LOL.

ETA - I actually get more sick of people commenting that my youngest should be bigger than he is when they hear how big he was born (over 10lb), like that means that he must have to be humungous because of his birth weight.