s/o: did your child wean at 5x birthweight? - Page 2

[Sharlla]

LOL DS will be 8 before he reaches 5 X his birth weight. He's almost 4 and weighs 30 lbs (born at 9.3 lbs)

[Dar]

Originally Posted by EviesMom

So DDs weaning seems to be on track with her getting of adult teeth.

That was also true for my daughter... she weaned a month or two before losing her first baby teeth.

Dar

[bwylde]

lol, nope! DD was about 70lbs when she weaned and was 8lbs 8oz when born (just weaned about a month ago and her weight has been going down since then). DS was 8lbs 13oz and weaned when he was aroun 50-ish pounds at 4 years 3 months.

[*mama moose*]

nope. Well, I guess I'm not really sure if DD weaned or not, its been a few weeks but you never know But she'll be 3 in August, weighs 37ish lbs, and was born 8lb 10oz. So close but not exactly....

[meemee]

dd has gone past her 45 pound mark abou two years ago, lost 5 teeth with more loose but still nursing at 6 1/2 years old.

[Viola]

Oh, now the teeth thing wasn't true for us. DD1 lost her first tooth when she was around 7, and DD2 is 5.5 and still has not lost teeth, but has already weaned.

[redpajama]

My suspicion is that this is sort of coincidental, and depends largely on your child's birth weight. My kids were both "big" babies who leveled off in their first year, so I'd be quite surprised if they're still nursing when they quintuple their birth weights.

It's the same with the whole "double by six months, triple by a year" rule of thumb that some people use. My daughter, for example, weighed 10 lbs. 7 oz. at birth. So doubling that would be almost 21 pounds, and tripling that would be 31 pounds 5 ounces. She's almost 2.5, and she weighs about 27.5-28 pounds, which is an appropriate weight for her height (both are ~50th%). 31.5 pounds would have been pretty ridiculous for her at 12 months.

Anyway, my son is 4 years and a couple months, and he weighs about 35 pounds. At the (slow) rate that they gain weight at this age, I can't imagine he'll still be nursing when he hits 45.5 (he was a bit over 9 pounds at birth).

But talk to me in a couple years--maybe I'll be eating my words. =)

[TiredX2]

According to Kathryn Dettwyler, most mammals wean at triple their birth weight (which is one fact that has encouraged the 1 year weaning in the recent past). Primates are more likely to go to quadruple their birth weight which would be from 2.5-3.5 years for humans.

That said, Dettwyler says 1/3 adult weight is a good indicator, which happens from 5-7 years in humans.

Here is a quick rundown:
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

DD was around 5X her birthweight when she weaned and DS was over 5X his birthweight when he weaned. While I have heard the first molars are pretty predictive, they were both very late teethers (at 7.5 DS has lost two teeth, at 10 DD has lost 8) so they weaned before that. The baby teeth used to be commonly called "milk" teeth, but both DD & DS were weaned 1.5-2 years before they lost their first tooth.

[maybemom05]

Not true for us - my little one was closer to 4x birth weight. Interesting idea though.

[glorio]

Interesting, I did a paper on this when ds was young and I think I remember reading this, but it didn't cross my mind when ds weaned. So... with his birth weight, he should of weaned at just under 40 lbs.
Close enough He was about 4 1/2 and a few lbs over 40.

[Dov'sMom]

DS is 5X birthweight and still nursing STRONG. Like whenever he can reach my breast....

He's also 28 months old, so not that old.

[BetsyPage]

i posted in the other thread... my 5.5 you is between 40-45 lbs (not sure exactly how much she weighs) and she is weaned I think, hasn't asked or nursed for a few weeks now... she doesn't know she's weaned though, lol, so maybe she'll ask again. She's about 5x her birthweight, and I expect she'll start losing teeth within the year, I lost my first around 6 yo.

[lechepatito]

Definitely not true for us! My 8 yo DD is still bfing and is more than 6x her birthweight of 8 lbs, 2 oz. And she started losing baby teeth at 4.5 yo....

I suppose it could be true for 4.5 yo DS, though. He's not quite 5x birthweight and hasn't lost any teeth. I'd be very, very surprised though.

[ChinaDoll]

Wow, this is very interesting - it's right on for both my kids

Emily 6.5 lbs at birth x 5 = 32.5 lbs (self-weaned at age 3.5/ 33 lbs)

Liam 8.5 lbs at birth x 5 = 42.5 lbs (almost there, almost weaned at age 5/ 41 lbs)


Interestingly, the teeth thing didn't hold true for DD, who weaned at 3.5 but lost her first tooth at age 6.5. However, I could see the 1/3 of her adult weight - 33 lbs - 99 lbs (at approximately 5 ft tall as estimated).

The tooth thing might hold true for DS, though, who will be 5+ by the time he's done.

[Aliviasmom]

While I pushed her a bit to end (so not completely CLW), she WAS cutting back and had been down to 10 minutes right before bed when she weaned at 27 months. To be 5x her birthweight, she would have to be 40 lbs 10 oz. At 4 years 4 months, she's only about 35 lbs.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by redpajama

My suspicion is that this is sort of coincidental, and depends largely on your child's birth weight. My kids were both "big" babies who leveled off in their first year, so I'd be quite surprised if they're still nursing when they quintuple their birth weights.

It's the same with the whole "double by six months, triple by a year" rule of thumb that some people use. My daughter, for example, weighed 10 lbs. 7 oz. at birth. So doubling that would be almost 21 pounds, and tripling that would be 31 pounds 5 ounces. She's almost 2.5, and she weighs about 27.5-28 pounds, which is an appropriate weight for her height (both are ~50th%). 31.5 pounds would have been pretty ridiculous for her at 12 months.

I've been thinking about this, and ITA.

It could be that *on average* humans wean at around 5x birthweight. Average birthweight is around 7.5 lbs, so that would be 37.5 lbs. *On average* that weight would be hit between 4.5-5 years. Since Kathryn Dettwyler suggests that 2.5-7 is the normal age for weaning in humans, that would produce an average (assuming a normal distribution) of 4.5-5 years. Now, some kids might be 3x birthweight when they wean, and others might be 8x or more, but *on average* around 5 x would make sense.

[triscuitsmom]

Interesting, I hadn't heard of this before either.

DS1 is 30 pounds at 2.5... at this rate he'll be about 5.5 when he's 5x his birthweight.

DS2 if he levels out like DS1 did (he's gaining the same pattern as him so far) after six months will be about 4.5 when he's 5x his birthweight.

So far both are still nursing strong... I guess we'll see

[Rach]

My first daughter was well over 6x her birth weight when she weaned.
My second daughter is about 3x her birth weight now that she's weaning.
Both girls weaned at about 3.5 years.

[kokonutmama]

I had been wondering about something like this. Not necessarily average weaning weight being a function of birth weight, but more a function of adult weight. I have been looking at giraffes and bears taking mother's milk at what looks like more than a third their mother's size and wondering how people came to find a 50lb nursling extraordinary.

As for us, ds just had his first multi-day stint without nursing and he's about 35-38 lbs, about 6 times his full term birth weight of 6 lbs.

[writteninkursive]

I've never even heard of this! How crazy am I? I didn't know they were supposed to be 5 times their birthweight when they wean, but that explains a LOT about my littlest one! My oldest weaned herself at 11 months. She was just done and done. But my little one is 18 months and still going strong. We were wondering if something was wrong since she is soooo attached still, but this explains a lot. :