Baby Slow Weight Gain

The last time I got Z weighed was when he was 6 weeks old. That was 17 weeks ago!!

I did try up get him weighed a few weeks ago. I went to my GP surgery where there is usually a clinic every Tuesday afternoon. I sat waiting, thinking it was a bit quiet, to be informed that the clinic no longer runs! Frustrated was an understatement. I was told that they had had signs up for weeks. Well it's not often I go to the GP surgery and when I do it's for the Nurse or GP who are situated on the first floor, so I didn't see any signs!!

There are other clinics on the area k can attend but they're all mostly afternoons and busy.

But yesterday I had to take P to a different health centre for a minor op. I checked my red book and realised that the baby clinic was on there, so though we'd go earlier and get Z weighed.

I was expecting him to be around 14/15lb mark. He's definitely growing and getting heavier, although he's not long gone in to 0-3month clothes and can still fit in some Newborn.

The Health Visitor weighed him, the plotted it on his charts as I got him re-dressed. She came over and explained that he has dropped off the chart. Despite being born off the chart and below the 0.4th Centile, by 6 weeks old he was sitting nicely on the 2nd centile. Yesterday's weight revealed he is just 11lbs 12oz, and this marked him as being below the 0.4th Centile.

She asked how he was feeding. I explained that we exclusively breastfeed but have started to give tasters of purée this week as he has started showing interest (we had tried him a couple of times a few weeks ago but he decided he didn't really want it after a few tries).

She explained that they would like to re-weigh him in 2 weeks, as well as get his height checked again. He had his height checked at 6 weeks and was 50cm long, putting him on the 0.4th centile. It will be interesting to see if this has remained the same.

I asked if they felt I needed to top up with formula and was pleased when they said no, to keep breast feeding on demand and continue the weaning.

I know I make small babies, but I've never had a baby drop off the charts before and I don't know if I should be worried or not.

I know the red books are also based on formula fed babies, but shouldn't he still follow a similar line?

I don't know what they'll suggest when I go back if he hasn't gained much weight. Have you been in a similar situation? What happened to you?

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[Baby Z Weight Update]

[...] Two weeks ago I wrote a post about how baby Z hadn’t gained much weight since his 6week weigh in. [...]