Height and weigh question

[momoftinyhayden]

Howdy Y'all,

I haven't been here in a long time, been busy busy with Hayden and Noah.

I just have a question

Hayden went to the doctors today, is measurements were 18lbs 5oz, 28 inches long and head circumference was 18 and 1/4,

The doctor says he's small even with the adjusted age.

He was born at 30 weeks, weighed 2lbs 15oz. and was 15 and 1/4 inches long.

How worried should i be about him being small?

He is 14 months old and still wears 6-9 month old clothes.

[ArcticRose]

I'd like to hear some responses too this, too.

My daughter was born at 32 1/2 weeks and is now over 6 months old (4 1/2 months age adjusted) She is small and still easily wears 3 month old clothes and some newborn.

She is a happy, healthy, energetic baby. I get really tired of the comments about how small she is.

[DocsNemesis]

From what I've been told, what you want to look for is growth in general-not how they compare on the charts. You want to see a consistent growth pattern. So, say he was in the 10th percentile at birth (do they do adjusted ages at birth? I have no clue....). If he's still right around the 10th percentile, he's fine. If he's over the 10th percentile, hes doing great. I'd get a little more worried if he was under, especially significantly.

As an example, my 33 weeker was 4lbs 13oz, 17 inches long at birth (no idea about head circumfrence, sorry!). He's now almost a year, 22 pounds, 28 inches long. His weight, adjusted, is right in the 50th percentile. His height is in the 5th. This raised some alarms until they checked his charts. His height has always been in the 5th percentile, since birth. Again, I dont know if they adjust AT birth, but his slope has remained consistent. As such, they arnt worried at all about him.

The same goes for my oldest son as well actually. He looks super skinny, but hes in the 50th percentile for height AND weight. His psychiatrist always freaks out about his lack of growth for long periods of time; yet hes always been in the range on his chart. I never got why he worried so much since he hasnt dropped down....blarg.

[DocsNemesis]

Oh and my almost year old just got into 6-12 month clothes, mainly because hes such a shorty! (And he totally messed up my buying clothes on clearance for the next year method of clothes buying-I think all the winter stuff will be good in summer for him and vise versa. Arg)

[aris99]

Hi,

I really think this is a case of "all kids are different, have their own growth curves and you really can't tell anything about height until your kids have finished growing " unless there's some underlying medical problem.

My micro was born 1lb 10.5oz, 12.5". She was IUGR. She did not make it onto the regular growth chart 'til she was about 2 and today she is at the 50th percentile at 3.5 yrs. She's very slim but she has caught up height-wise.

My eldest was 4.8lbs at birth, 17 1/2" long at full term so IUGR. Today she's 8yo and between the 50th and 75th for height but she weighs only 48lbs.

I wouldn't start worrying about height unless you've seen no growth for an extended period of time.

[syn_ack89]

Hope you don't mind me dropping in (my LO wasn't a preemie - born at 39 wks). He is 2yrs 4 mos and still wears 12mos pants. He dropped off the weight chart for a while (but is now back on at 5-10%).

So even a full-term baby can be small - they all grow at different rates.

[DocsNemesis]

Thats true too-my 2nd child had very short legs. Its like...the rest of her was growing, but her legs werent, until she hit like 2.5. Every childs growth is definately different-its just growth in general you want. And of course, kids can plateau in their growth-my kids do that a LOT. No growth for a long time and then suddenly they act like they're starving all the time and BAM-2 months later they've gained 10 pounds and 4 inches.

@Aris-OH MY! What a tiny little girl! I cant imagine!

[susienjay]

I have 5 year old twins that were born at 32 weeks. At a year my dd was 15 pounds and in 6/9 month clothes and ds was 23 pounds and in 18 month clothes. My dd was just tiny for a long time. At 2.5 she wore 18 month clothes but she had a huge growth spurt after that. Now at 5 both of the twins wear size 5s. My ds is 40 pounds and dd is 36 pounds. Ds is only 1 inch taller. I just had them in for their 5 year checks and was surprised how close together they are now.

My 18 month old full term son is still wearing 12 month stuff. Even some of his 6/9 month pants still fit he has such short legs. He's just over 20 pounds.

[Z1Z2]

My DD was born at 29 1/2 weeks. She weighed 1lb 14 oz, so IUGR was an issue too. She was 14 1/2 lbs at 1 and 21 lbs at 2, so she was not exactly the size one would have expected for her age. However, her ped always told DH and I that, as long as DD maintained her OWN growth curve, was healthy and was developmentally on track, the actual scale reading meant VERY LITTLE. That was true for us. DD may have been little, but she was healthy, hit her milestones and grew at least a little between each weight check.

DD hit the growth charts at 4. From not on at 3, she went to 75% for height and 50% for weight. She is now 8, and has maintained those same % ever since. Tiny as a baby, or even as a toddler, does not necessarily mean tiny forever.

Keeping in mind that my study group is one (my 4 year old son was full term.), I don't think I would be overly worried by Hayden's size. FT babies are "supposed" to triple their weight gain the first year. Hayden did that and then some. Why is the doctor expecting more of him than he would of a FT baby? I don't want to practice medicine w/o a license, but if Hayden is healthy and meeting milestones, I think I would tell the doctor to leave him alone.

I no longer have the references handy, but a couple a years ago, I read some papers that suggest that rapid weight gain in ex-preemies might actually be undesirable. It has to potential to contribute to health problems later. Slow but steady may be the desirable approach to weight gain in former preemies.

Paula

[felix23]

Lilly was also born at 29 weeks and suffered from IUGR. She weighed 1 lb 13 oz. at birth. At a year she weighed 10 lbs. At two years 19 lbs, and now at 3.5 she weighs 23 lbs. As long as she follows her growth curve and develops fine, then her dr. isn't worried.

[momoftinyhayden]

Our local hospital recently closed due to bankruptsy. The doctor we've had for a year had to start a new chart for Hayden. He said he was going to go back and look at Hayden's records thus far and make sure he's growing. He always forgets Hayden was preemie and we have to go back each time and explain to him Hayden's story. I think after awhile you get sick of telling the story.

I think the doctor expects Hayden to be at least in the 10th percentile, and he's not even in the 5th i don't think.

As far as milestones, i have to look them up again and find out what he's suppose to be doing at 14 months. He does not walk on his own yet, but he will crawl, pull himself up infront of stuff and walk along the front of it, he will stand without holding things for a minute or two, or until he realizes he isn't holding onto anything then he will bend down and crawl, he does squat down and play with his toys and he will sit on his knees to play. His speech is kinda what i'm more worried about, he says mama, dada, daddy, no no, yeah yeah, bobo (for his bottle). He has recently started pointing at things when he wants them. He has also started bottle breaking himself, he wants his sippy cup most of the time. He does not get a bottle during the night.

[sbrinton]

Like everyone else, I've found that our kids do not grow at a consistent rate, but they do grow. Our oldest was not a preemie and he's always been between the 10th-50th percentile.

Our second child was a preemie and has always been small for his age. He was 5 lb 8 oz when he was born at 35 weeks. He weighed maybe 18 at a year, not quite 20 at 18 months and then 23 pounds at 2 years. This put him around the 3rd perentile for weight. He's been a little taller for his age all along.

Our youngest was 3 lb 13 oz at birth at 31 weeks. He's now maybe 15 pounds at 8 months (6 adjusted). He's growing well, but off the charts if we don't adjust. If we do adjust, he's pretty close to the 25th percentile.

All of our kids have "fallen" off the charts a little between 6-18 months. I figure it's mostly because they are active boys. Our doctors were a little worried, but now that we've seen the pattern in our older boys, I wouldn't be suprised if our youngest does the same thing.

[jlovesl]

Originally Posted by syn_ack89

Hope you don't mind me dropping in (my LO wasn't a preemie - born at 39 wks). He is 2yrs 4 mos and still wears 12mos pants. He dropped off the weight chart for a while (but is now back on at 5-10%).

So even a full-term baby can be small - they all grow at different rates.

Have to agree with you here. My boy was a prem ( 9 weeks early) he is now 23 months and can wear his 9 months old shorts. He is too tall for the pants leg length but the waist size is perfect. We have a very hard time finding pants that fit his waist and are long enough. Good waist - short in leg. Good leg - waist way too big. URGGGG....

[justmama]

My 34 weeker was 5lbs 3oz and 18inches long and was 21lbs by a year and 26lbs by 2 years and is 35lbs at 4 1/2. My 33 weeker was 4lbs 12oz and 18inches long and is a chunky little 26lb 18month old now. My full term 40w 1d daughter was 6lbs 5oz at birth and at 9 is JUST hitting 50lbs. So my full term baby is comparatively smaller than my preemies, surprisingly enough. I wouldn't worry unless your son stopped following his own growth curve and started dropping percentiles.

Regarding the speech, the AMOUNT of words he says sounds normal to me. My 33 weeker was saying literally 4 words at that age and she's now just shy of 19months and putting two words together with a vocabulary of at least 30words and 25signs. So she just exploded in language skills all of a sudden. We even had her evaluated by EI because she didn't bother to even begin babbling until 10months and she said her first word shortly thereafter. As long as he is babbling, has a few words and you know he can hear, I wouldn't be concerned. Just keep remembering that he was 2 1/2 months premature. He's not really 14months old but more like 11 or 12months old. His development sounds spot on if you ask me!

[DocsNemesis]

We just had our one year checkup and my ds is 28.5 inches long and only 20 pounds still. He's gained an inch but lost about half a pound in the last month or so. His ped wasnt concerned at all; in fact, she just read off his measurments and then moved on to something else.

Judging from my other kids, I'm assuming he lost a little weight due to his activity level-he went from sitting to crawling EVERYWHERE. That crawling takes a lot of calories!

[liberal_chick]

My ds was a 30 weeker, 2 lbs. 14 oz and 15 inches. At 1, he was about 18.5 pounds (no idea how long off the top of my head). Now at 4, he's about 41 inches and 32 pounds. Tall and skinny.