Small baby syndrome. Need reassurance.

[Rachels]

Also worth noting that many, many BF babies drop percentiles in the second half of the first year. They just don't grow like FF babies, nor should they. Don't worry!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[chlobo]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. DD certainly has plenty of poopy & pee diapers and is growing (although slowly).

I guess its hard not to second guess (even without outside pressure) when you see that your child is small compared with her peers.

[Imperia]

DOn't worry,

I echo what everyone else has said. My DD is pretty small, although she has gone up a bit in her percentiles. (She was 25th for weight and 35th for height last time after being 10th and 12th). My ped says not to worry unless:

the baby appears ill, weak or isn't advancing in other areas (motor skills, speech etc)

isn't eating well (ie too few diapers etc)

they start dropping sharply off in one area but not others.

AS long as the baby is healthy and stats are fairly balanced don't worry/ Solids are not the answer, as people have told you. Breastmilk is much more calorically dense, fruits and carbs will just fill her up and not nourish her or help her gain.

Some babies are just small, and there is NOTHING wrong with that. I think this whole obessesion with the weight of babies is silly to be honest, especially since EBF babies will be smaller than FF babies just due to the difference in what is in them. My mother was told she was abusing my brother because she breastfed him and he was "Small", grrrrrrr. (This was in the 60's mind you, but still).

Good luck!

Imperia

[Rachels]

Remember those "peers" were from a nonrepresentative sample that's about forty years old. :)

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[houseof3boys]

You've gotten great advice but thought I'd join the thin baby club since Ryan is now 10th percentile for weight, 50th for height and 10th for head circumference at his check at 10 months (had to go back in for head measurement). Ryan still nurses around 7-9 times a day and we had to ease up on solids for 3 weeks to figure out an allergy. Ryan doesn't appear thin to me at all, but if I focused on the charts, I would go nuts. He is a perfect little boy, so whether he matches up to the charts is something I now care less and less about.

Don't rush solids as you've been advised. It takes time for her to learn and for you to learn her pace so don't worry about the percentiles, just worry about doing your job of providing great nutrition (BF and whatever solids you choose to give her) and everything will be fine. :)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

But take a look at adults. Many of us are "small" compared to our peers and many of us are "large" compared to our peers. We are all not supposed to be the same size.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[christic]

Rachel,

Are doctors just not yet using the new CDC charts from 2000? The new charts still don't take into account the different growth patterns of FF/BF babies, but they do include a much more representative sample of feeding methods and include data from the 90s in the mix.

http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/

I guess I assumed all peds used the new charts, but I can't even say for sure what our own ped is using. ?

Chris

[egoldber]

The problem, even with the new charts, is that so few babies in this country are exclusively breastfed that its practically impossible to gauge an exclusively bf baby via these charts. By age 6 months, fewer than 1 in 5 babies in the US are still breastfed, much less ebf. So most data for babies older than 6 months is going to be based on ff babies.

I would agree that the best thing is to watch your baby. As long as they are meeting milestones and are happy and alert, I would not be concerned.

HTH,

[suribear]

Just wanted to chime in and say that I agree with the others. We went through the same thing. DD eats a lot now, at 4, and is still very slim.
Kris