Weight gain at five months - just a question

[Now we're 3]

Hi

Probably the incorrect place to post this so apologies in advance if it is.

I am taking my 5 month old to be weighed tomorrow and am wondering what weight gain should I expect in the month since he has last been weighed?

We had some weight gain issues in the begining but I have relaxed quite a bit over the last few months and am no longer obsessively weighing him every week like I did in the begining. I last had him weighed on 1 Feb.

FWIW I am still BFing him on demand (between 5-7 feeds per day) but he gets offered two tops which is formula - on average he takes 60mls top up. I also started solids about 10 days ago and he is currently on just one solid feed per day.

What sort of gain should I expect tomorrow? One reason for asking is one of the girls in my mothers group had a weight gain of 300g for the month which the health nurses were slightly concerned about.

Thanks

[*Beema*]

Hi NW3

It sounds like you are doing a fabulous job, I too BF'd and topped up with formula or EBM from 10 weeks to about 6 1/2 months of age, and I understand how exhausting it can be

As bubs grows older the gains do slow done quite a bit, as they become more mobile, but you may find that your bub may also do a bit of catch up, which is what my DD did or just continue along the same curve. My DD was a terrible gainer, and she only hit the charts for her actual age at the 6 months of age , after a very slow start and some losses. But I had a look at her chart and her gains were greater than 300grams between the 5th and 6th months but she had a lot of catching up to do.

But really any gain is good, and as long is bub is following a curve in the upwards direction - it doesn't have to be the exact curve/shape as on the chart, just heading upwards. They do get concerned if bubs drops 2 %iles over a period of say a month ie, from the 75th to the 25th%ile, a sudden drop like that may raise a few eyebrows if there was no real reason for the drop.

But generally a gain is a gain, I am sure all will go well for you, and you can probably feel the difference

Take care and all the best for tomorrow, don't be too concerned on the number and comparing with other bubs, as they are all so very different
xxoo

[Jas]

I agree with Beema! around the 400+ grams would be good for a month but yea we had around 6months a 10gram weight loss but growth in length (he had started crawling pulling to stand etc which explains the loss) and since then has been back to his usual weight gains.

I 100% understand the stress of weigh gain ds1 wasn't back to birth weight until 7weeks (and that only came with firmula top ups!) And so ds2 I did the at least (sometimes more frequent) weigh ins for a long while but yea just know is you baby showing those great signs...happy, lots of wet nappies etc etc

Hope it all goes well tomorrow!

[Trillian]

According to kellymom, at his age the *average* weight gain for babies is anything from 92 - 142 grams per week, so from 368 - 568 grams for the month. What has his gains been like to this point? If he has been a big gainer previously, expect that he may have slowed down a little as from this point on their weight can slow right down - and it is still perfectly normal if this does happen because they can't keep stacking it on otherwise they would be huge kwim? Plus there is also the developmental advances he would have made the past few weeks with being more mobile etc. Even 300g for your MG friend's baby is still fine so long as that baby is still following their own 'curve' on the charts.

[MantaRay]

As Trillian says, at that age you can often get quite small gains with no problem. My DS was very active and crawling at that age so his gains slowed right down. He went from the 90th percentile (he had huge gains in the first 3 months) to the 25th percentile. The MCHN was never worried though as he was clearly getting enough milk and healthy. I wouldn't think that 300g in a month at that age would be anything to worry about unless there were other signs. Sometimes health professionals can get a bit too focused on numbers rather than the bigger picture.

[Now we're 3]

Thank for the responses ladies ............. just thought I'd update and let you know that we gained 610g in the four weeks and grew 2.5cm so my little boy is growing up