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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

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.

I know someone who had the opposite. Her teeny little 6lber has been in the 90th centile since 6mths.

I'm happy to have come across this thread because I have been worried about my DD's weight. When I was in the hospital the mid-wives kept freaking out and worrying me about her weight loss (which was more than 10%). They got a paediatrician involved who wasn't worried about her weight loss because she'd started out as a big, healthy baby and he said she could stand to lose more weight than some other babies. But I still worried because every mid-wife would comment on the fact that she was losing so much weight and would tell me that I'm not feeding her enough. I didn't realise it was common to grow big babies whose weight gains then slowed down to match their actual genetic predisposition.

When Maya was born she weighed 4.01 kg (8.8 pounds) - about 90th percentile. At her 8 week check up she was 4.65 kg (10.3 pounds) - about 50th percentile.

ooo I have one of these kids!
DS was 8pd14.5oz at birth, and would now be lucky to be 12 kgs at 18months. He packed on the weight the first 8 weeks, adn then down down down he went.
I've never been overly worried. He's doing everything he's meant to,he's happy and healthy, and he always did some growing between each measurement with the MCHN.
I just used to love the comments when we were out.
'How old is he?'
'11 months'
'oh he's only little isn't he? I would have thought only 5-6 months'

I don't know how many of these comments I have heard.

It seems to be more popular that the bigger born babies aren't returning to or keeping on the same % they were born on!

Hayden was born 9lb 1oz on the 75% at birth(he was born 41+1weeks), he then slid down the scales to the 10% where he stayed for 4 weeks before managing to put on a large weight gain and then sit on the 50%, where he is currently at 9 weeks. The midwifes think that he'll return to the 75% but I'm not so sure, I think he'll stay around the 50% that's where my last 2 sat.

This has become an interesting topic to me and i'll be watching this thread closely!

Thanks for posting it!!
Snoopea

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I just used to love the comments when we were out.
'How old is he?'
'11 months'
'oh he's only little isn't he? I would have thought only 5-6 months'

I don't know how many of these comments I have heard.

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I get this all the time too with my 1 year old! Although he was born a littlie (6lb 50z) and has remained that way!

Nakita was born just above the 50th %ile (5lb2oz), based on a gestational chart we were given, being prem weight loss/slow gain is common. But she fell down to the 3rd%ile (4lb12oz) prem chart by the time she had reached term. Then by 11 weeks she was completely off the bottom of the chart (by about 800gams below the 3rd %ile), but we reverted to using her corrected age (1 month) which is used until she is 1-2 years old. This put her on the 5th %ile corrected. That way we could track her gains along a line :)

It has taken her a while to get going and we have no idea what her "line" is going to be as she is a bit all over the place but at 5 months she actually hit the charts again and for the last 5 weeks has been going great guns ;) at the moment she is on the 10th%ile Actual, or 25th%ile corrected!!!!

I guess for us the real test will be when she starts getting more active/crawling/rolling more etc. so we are hoping that she keeps getting some chub on her in the meantime!

Either way at he 6 month checkup, her Paediatrician said she looked fabulous, there was plenty of chub now and he would never expect her to be high on the charts, cos the weight she carries suits her IYKWIM, so he didn't care where she was on the charts.

Also when it comes to the charts, there are a range of percentiles cos some bubs are naturally smaller and others larger, so it may be normal for your bubs to be on the 10th%ile or the 50th%ile or the 90th%ile. All bubs are different, and there would be no the point having the charts if they were all supposed to be the same size, which is never going to happen!!!!!

As long as bub is happy, healthy, content after a feed, developing, within reason to gestational milestones, growing in length HC etc then weight doesn't matter unless their are no gains/losses for a significant period of time (other than caused by illness) :)

EDIT: we have always got the "gosh she is small" so we often don't say her actual age (lucky for us we have this ;)), but even for her corrected age she was still at the bottom, so that didn't make much of a different :rolleyes:, what I find a little more depressing and when 4 and 5 months down the track bubs are born and they are bigger than she is at the time, that is a bit scary!!! :rofl:

Wow! I have just been talking about this in my belly buddies thread. Jett was born at 8lbs, so a little above average, but has steadily slid down the scales to 10%. He is now 5 months old, but still doesn't fit into pumpkin patch 3-month sized clothes.

He gets weighed next Monday at my request to see how he is travelling. I get nervous because I don't want to be judged by his size. He feeds, he is happy and active and seems to be developing at the same rate as other bubs his age so I know he is just fine, but there is that little niggle that makes me feel like I'm not doing the best by him.

Between 2 and 3 months he only gained 60gms for some unknown reason which sent me in to panic mode. But he put 300gms in the next two weeks so it seems it was just a hiccup. And although he put the weight on he remained on 10% for weight, but his height shot up to 50%. My MCHN is great and isn't worried thankfully, and was quite happy for me to not go back until the 6 month checkup, but I just need to know earlier that he is still on the scale!