**Tricia***

SBMBride406

You pedi really only wants Robbie to gain an ounce a month?! Our pedi is really on us to try and get Marino to gain weight and he definately gains more than an ounce a month (usually about half a lb a month, unless he's sick). If Marino is still small at 2, she said she's going to chalk it up to my genetics (Evan is 6'2; I'm 5'3).

MrsJRT

totally butting in here, but wanted to give you different opinions.  Our pedi said that the average growth after a year is only a 1 pound/year.  She said even preemies, once they hit a year old, their rapid growth stops because they are so active.  Robinson is on track to gain more than that, but I freaked out at his 18 month because he'd only gaine 1/2 pound and that's when she told me the other.  She said, obviously each kid is different and a lot do gain more than a pound...but that's the average/norm.

SBMBride406

a pound a year?! For how long? Just through toddler years?

Mrs. Destructo

Huh, interesting.

 Our pedi wants Leo to gain 1/2-1 lb a month. In the last month he gained 2 oz, and our pedi is really not happy with that. Drake has been gaining approx 1 lb/month since their 2nd birthday, so he's having catchup growth now (awesome!). Since they have identical DNA, we've been hoping that they'd gain at the same rate but it hasn't worked out that way.

MrsJRT

I'm not really sure...I was so freaked out that something was wrong since he hadn't gained weight that she threw out that stat and said until 2 years. I'm not sure if it follows through the toddler years. 

BUT...it could be a completely different scenario with Marino based on where he is on the chart.  I'm not sure if that factors in at all.  Robinson is in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight (he's 34 1/2 inches and 26 1/2 pounds)

I have no idea really, and is all confusing and stressful if I think about it too much.  I still stuff a spoonfull of sour cream every once in a while in Robinson's meals. I think as a preemie mom, you never stop worrying about weight gain!

 

SBMBride406

Ok, I was trying to imagine Marino being 26 lbs at 5 and it wasn't seeming right! But just until 2 or 3 makes more sense, since they go from being sleeping/eating machines to moving monsters!

Marino is small (30th-ish percentile...we can never get a good measurement...for height and 13th for weight). But I weighed under 20lbs at 2 and I was a full-term baby (although I only weighed 5lbs at birth), so it may just be that he's going to stay small.

There's really no way I can feed him anymore than I do now (he is an awesome eater...he loves all different foods and is usually pretty enthusiastic about eating unless he is tired) so I'm not sure how I could get him to gain more weight at this point.

TriciaJoy

I think the real goal is more like 2 or 3/month, but Robbie actually was too fat for a while. He was only at like 25% for weight, but he's also crazy short (at that time, not on the chart yet) But she was more focused on weight-for-height and the growth curve than where he is on the chart itself.

LIke.. she was even fine with him being below the chart, so long as he stayed along his own curve. He went from below the chart to 25% in like 4 months which was just too much.. so she wanted him to slow down pretty drastically. 

 

Honestly, it bothers me that they try to make our little guys be as big as a full termer.. as long as they're growing, they'll get where they are supposed to be. 

If you look at the growth charts, the weight gain *REALLY* slows down at a year old.. 

 

SBMBride406

Ah, got it. Marino is always in a higher percentile for height than weight. And head size he has been in the 95th since he was a few months old. Guess there's not much we can do about a big ol head!

Has Robbie caught up with his height at all?

TriciaJoy

Okay.. here's the list of charts. I usually just use group 1.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/charts.htm#Set1

 

Looking at weight for age for boys.. 

If you look at average.. let's go with the 50% line.. 

Between 9 & 12 months,  he should go from 20.5lb to just under 23lb (like 12oz/month)

then from 12-15 months, to about 24.5lb. (~8oz/month)

then 15-18 months just under 26lb. (~6oz/month)

Then from 18-21 months (where Robbie is) he should go to just right at 27lb (~5oz/month)

From there it stays at about 1lb/3months for a while (I think it picks up again around 3, but I haven't looked that far ahead to really say that for sure.) 

Like I said, Robbie when from probably -5% on the chart to 25% in about 4 months. He seriously got REALLY fat for a while.. It was when he stopped puking so much. He went from puking 20 times a day to more like 3x a day and all of a sudden he just took off. It was crazy. I'll have to dig up a couple of pictures to show the difference.. so for us, he needed to gain less than average. She did NOT want him climbing on the chart any more (he was at 95% for weight-height ratio) and preferred to keep him where he was or down a little. 

Fortunately he FINALLY grew in height some (on the chart!) so he grew into his weigh ta bit.. and he started moving (crawling & walking) and actually lost a few oz this time, so now we're back to trying to fatten him up a little.. (Are you dizzy yet?) but overall, he looks appropriate now. 

 

 

TriciaJoy

SBMBride406:

Ah, got it. Marino is always in a higher percentile for height than weight. And head size he has been in the 95th since he was a few months old. Guess there's not much we can do about a big ol head!

Has Robbie caught up with his height at all?

 

Sorry, I was typing as you were..Took me a while to get all the info. 

Robbie's head is quite large as well. I don't even know where it's currently at.. last I knew it was 50 or 60%, which sounds normal, but considering his height wasn't even at the chart yet, that's a huge difference.
Robbie is finally on the chart for height.. 7%. *LOL* I was getting nervous because our pedi was talking about growth hormones at age 3 if he didn't catch up a bit. 

 

lstaylor73

TriciaJoy:

I think the real goal is more like 2 or 3/month, but Robbie actually was too fat for a while. He was only at like 25% for weight, but he's also crazy short (at that time, not on the chart yet) But she was more focused on weight-for-height and the growth curve than where he is on the chart itself.

LIke.. she was even fine with him being below the chart, so long as he stayed along his own curve. He went from below the chart to 25% in like 4 months which was just too much.. so she wanted him to slow down pretty drastically. 

 

Honestly, it bothers me that they try to make our little guys be as big as a full termer.. as long as they're growing, they'll get where they are supposed to be. 

If you look at the growth charts, the weight gain *REALLY* slows down at a year old.. 

 

 

This has been exactly our issue and how our docs are handling it, especially for Evan who's still super short.  As long as they continue to creep up on their charts for weight to height on their own curve or at least maintain their weight they are fine and we won't worry.  But we are also constantly evaluating how much food we are pumping in to them, so we mechanically can control all of this.  It is much harder and scarier to worry about growth when you don't have a feeding tube, now that I've been on both sides of the fence.

ijack

This is an interesting thread. Our 2 yr appt is in a couple weeks and I'm interested to see what they say because E has grown 1.5 inches in the last 2 months and only gained about a pound. I hope she has this figure when she grows up