My 5 month old went from 80 to 70 to 60th percentile. He is exclus. breastfed. I just had a ped apt. last week and my ped.
was not concerned. I know all kids are different but my first child who is 2 now nursed every 2 hours during the day up til she was 6 months old and was always 90 th percentile. My 5 month old doesnt seem to eat much during the day, every 3 - 4 hours and he is up 2 times during the night! ugh!!! I guess if my pediatrician says his percentile number decreasing is Ok then I gues it IS OK????? I am a worry wart mom...
My 4 year old is 40lbs, my 6 yr old is 40lbs kids eat different, weight different. I wouldn't worry too much!! Worry less enjoy more:)
My kids were always in the 10th to 15th percentile, but then my husband is Filipino and a shortie (5'8") and I am barely 5'5" so completely normal.
Pay more attention to your child's overall growth, health and development vs. a "one size fits all" growth chart, it's just a reference point, not the holy grail :)
From kellymom.com:
Healthy breastfed infants tend to grow more rapidly than formula-fed infants in the first 2-3 months of life and less rapidly from 3 to 12 months. All growth charts available at this time include data from infants who were not exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months (includes formula-fed infants and those starting solids before the recommended 6 months). Because many doctors are not aware of this, they see the baby dropping in percentiles on the growth chart and often come to the faulty conclusion that the baby is not growing adequately. At this point they often recommend that the mother (unnecessarily) supplement with formula or solids, and sometimes recommend that they stop breastfeeding altogether. Even if mom realizes that her baby is perfectly healthy and doesn't follow these unnecessary recommendations, she ends up worrying for no reason (and moms don't need anything extra to worry about!).
Clearly your doc is not in this category. What you are describing is common for exclusively breastfed babies, they drop percentiles as their growth slows. Nothing to worry about as long as baby is nursing well and otherwise appears healthy.
It seems that thankfully, your pediatrician is learned in the aspect of gaining weight slowly versus failure to thrive/gain weight. If there was an issue, the growth SLOPE/CURVE would have started declining rather than slowly increasing. THe percentile is declining simply because as your son gets older, the weight and height is higher. Just because he's not doing the full increase of either doesn't mean his growth is stilted or something is metabolically wrong.
He's eating when hungry - that's all you should worry about - which is very good.
My first daughter was 7.11 and 19in (very normal) at birth and swiftly moved below the 5th percentile for weight and 60th for height. I exclusively breastfed until 8-9 months. Her weigth now, at 6 y/o is only 43lb @ 43in. Still low weight wise but long, lean and strong. Had to fight her Drs about supplementing. She was obviously not a large framed baby!!
Baby #2, a boy - was 10.8 at birth and 21.25in. He's barely 3 months and he's 15lbs and 24.5 in (90th for height and weight)... my daughter was over a year old before she reached 15lbs!! He seems to have a medium frame, because he's definitely not husky and is very height/weight proportionate. He's also exclusively breastfeeding.
As long as your baby continues to grow, even if it's not in huge chunks, I wouldn't worry. Between 2 & 4 months, my baby went from 50th in height & weight to 30th in height and 10th in weight. Also, when they're this young, even the SLIGHTEST mis-measurement (height-wise) makes a huge difference. At our 4 month visit, the nurse measured my daughter a half inch longer than the PA did, which would have made almost a 25% difference on the charts. Weight should be much easier regarding consistency as long as they know how to work the baby scale! :)
As my very wise dr said.. "people come in different sizes"
My daughter was a small baby nursed poorly... grew slowly.. hated baby food... then wouldnt transition to table food... she choked and gagged on food.. of course she didnt gain much weight.. at 15 or 18 months.. the dr mentioned doing some blood work to look for any issues that would be causing her to be small. she is almost 6 weighs 36 pounds and is very tiny.
but healthy- she is never at the dr for sickness only well visits...she is still a fussy eater.
my son was born at 8 pds 8 oz.. nursed great loved baby food.. loved table food and to this day eats anything your give him.. he is tall and thin but normal.
your baby is fine.. he is growing.. the dr will monitor his weight and height.. and look at the growth charts.
My 5 month old is not even on the chart, where my first was always up there above 60th percentile.. As long as the doc is not worried.. then I would not worry.
Have you started solids? That usually helps.
My girlfriends son is up 2 times a night and he is 9 months old.. My 5 month old mostly sleeps through the night. Each kid is different.
As long as he's having 8-10 wet diapers through the day, he's getting enough. If you're concerned, you can always get a 2nd opinion. But sounds like he's doing fine. Every child grows at different rates...he will probably just go through a huge spurt here soon and this will be a distant memory as you'll do nothing but feed him!!
Your 5 month old is still in a very healthy range, don't worry!!! :)
Back in the old days, like 35 years ago, docs did not go by percentiles.
If they were growing and gaining all was well.
Are you still producing ample milk?
Is he latching on properly?
Is he satisfied after nursing?
IF your are giving Solids: Are you nursing before or after solids??? Nursing should be done BEFORE solids. Otherwise baby will be too full to nurse, if after solids.
Is he teething? This can temporarily make them 'reject' nursing or as much.
How often, is he given solids??? At this age, it should not be 3 times a day. For the 1st year of life, breastmilk/Formula is a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition. And solids is not as nutritionally dense, as breastmilk or Formula.
Is he more active? This can affect their weight gain. Temporarily.
ALWAYS, just nurse on-demand. Day and night.
Him getting up for nursing twice a night, for me (per my kids as babies) is normal and my kids did that more than yours.
Do you nurse, directly from breast? Or sometimes give him a bottle??? Try to nurse directly from breast, otherwise your milk supply may diminish.
If your milk supply is diminishing, this can affect his intake and nursing frequency and your let-down. And what he take in.
Your Pediatrician is not worried.
