[apple80]

My bub was born at 36 weeks nearly 4 months ago. He seems to be doing really well and putting on weight so I am not worried at all, but I do get a lot of comments about his small size.

He has been on the 10th percentile for height and head circumference since birth, but when adjusted goes up to the 50th percentile. Has anyone had their baby climb up the percentiles as they get older, and if so when did it happen?

[frogcal]

My DS was also born at 36 weeks but had IUGR as well. For ages he looked much smaller than kids the same age and was around the 10th percentile. Just had his 2 year check and he is almost to 50th percentile for height but still 25th for weight. I think he is just a slight build, so not stressed. He also does not look out of place with the other kids in my mothers' group even though he is the youngest.
My paediatrician told everything between the 3rd and 97th percentile is considered normal, and the charts are more to track sudden increase/decrease in growth rates, so as long as his growth is steady I would not worry too much about the percentiles.

[*lilmiss*]

my DS (35+5) is now 15months and still only 3rd percentile for his weight but 75th percentile for his height... so he's tall and skinny. He doesn't eat a whole lot, which probably explains it, but he keeps gaining and never loses weight unless he is sick, so I'm not too worried about it.

as his growth is steady I would not worry too much about the percentiles.

completely agree with this

[Elemenopee]

My twins were born at 30 weeks. One had IUGR, weighed 890gms (the other was 1.5kgs), and wasn't even on the charts for a long while. He is now 3.5, height is 25-50%, weight is 50%. He goes to preschool and you would not be able to pick him out as an ex-premmie.

[lsolaBella]

My Nephew was born 12m ago at 35wks (mum had HELLP Eclampsia). He is a tiny 3% boy at 12m. My sister was very concerned and about to ask about testing when I pointed out his 12m stats were exactly in line with my DS1 at 12m (he is now 7yrs and 3-10% for height).

My DD was born 36w. She has stayed 25%.

DS2 has been a 65-70% boy his whole life.

They have all continued to track the same height trajectories since birth.

Weight has been up and down.

Head Circ jumped up to over 97% at 12m of age (so DS1 when he started school had the size 4 clothes too big for him but was wearing the 12yo hats).

[mummacat]

DS1 was born at 34 weeks (2.5kg at birth) he is 5 and half and in size 4 tops and size 3 bottoms. Lasted I checked he was in the bottom 5th percentile and has been around this since 12 months. DS1 got a virus after I returned to worked (and he started childcare) when he was 1 and he lost a lot of weight and he was hospitalised. He has never caught that up again. He is one of the smallest kids in FYOS.

DS2 was born at 32 weeks (1.8kg at birth) he has just turned 1 and weighs 8.37kg and is in the bottom 3rd percentile. He just had his 1 year old pead check up and he is not worried about height or weight as he is tracking on the same percentile from birth.

I am on the short size and so is DH so as the pead said we were never going to have big babies.

[toc76]

Hi DS1 was born at 36 weeks and was this tiny little thing that 00000 wouldnt fit properly.

I was told by the doctors and health nurses at the time that by the time he was two there would be no issues. They just put two ages in his blue book; his adjusted age and actual age. DS is now 97% for height and around 50% for height so their has defintiely been no long term issues.

If he is putting on weight and is happy then I wouldnt worry too much about peoples comments on his size

[Studybug]

DS was born at 36wks, on 3%ile for weight and 10%ile for height. In his first 6 mths, he made it up to 10%ile for weight and almost 50%ile for height. At around 9mths he fell off the bottom of the charts weight-wise and was back down to 25%ile for height.

He's now 33 mths, and at a guess, I'd say he's probably still off the bottom of the charts weight-wise, and height-wise he might be 10-25%ile. This has been steady for over a year.

I remember at times being worried that DS wasn't growing like he should be. But the reality is, randoms and even health professionals are not accurate judges of what is small or large for a child. DS still gets alot of the "oh he's so little and cute" when he's running around in less clothing (and people can see he's not chubby) but out and about dressed and talking and people guess he's older than what he is. In the one day recently, I had both "he's little, isn't he" and "oh he's a tall boy!". Mostly tho, he just gets 'oh he's happy!"
If you're not worried, then try to filter out the random comments cos they really are just subjective comments. For eg. I have a 2 yr old, but I have no idea by looking at another 2yr old if they're normal height, tall, overweight, etc.

Also, maybe to put it into perspective, I'd take into account the size you and his dad were as children and maybe as adults. DS appears to have quite a similar shape to both DH and I as children. Maybe genetics influences bub's size as much as prematurity??

cheers.

This post has been edited by Studybug: 29/10/2012, 02:50 PM

[apple80]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It sounds like there is still time for him to catch up, or he might just stay on the smallish side. I agree as long as he is healthy it doesn't really matter. There are very tall and very short people in my family so I guess I'll just have to wait and find out!

[handsfull]

My girls were born right on 27 weeks and weighed 905g and 1015g respectively.

They caught up by 6 months and were normal size thereon. However now they are 9 they are the tallest girls (we are only average) and are 31-32kg respectively. Long and lean but not skinny IYKWIM.

Its a wait and see thing as I can still picture them and they were the size of a beanie kid!

This post has been edited by handsfull: 30/10/2012, 03:58 PM