FTM- what does the "baby is in (fill in number) percentile" mean?

Davesgrl2011

I hear it a lot on here- baby is in 56th percentile, etc.  What does that mean?  Thanks!

sourapplemartini

It means 56% of babies at the same age are below your child. So, if the baby is 56th%tile for weight, he's about average. 90th%tile is high.

ebl2

Yeah, 50% is average. Anything over 90% is considered very big and your doctor will want to monitor. I'm not sure what is alarmingly small though. I just know because at one point my baby was in the 89th percentile. 

jennyann28

Alarmingly small is <10th percentile.  When babies get that low, they can stress out in the uterus, and need to be delivered.

That said, I only trust the level II growth ultrasounds at my perinatologists.  There is a lot of room for error in determining size via u/s. 

Sawyerplus1

It means if you lined up all the babies in a row from smallest (1%) to largest (100%), LO would be about 56th in line. 

punkrockabye

Clicked 3T by accident, but I'll answer anyway! If a baby is in the 56th percentile for growth, that means 44 percent of babies are bigger than yours and 56 percent of babies are smaller than yours. That's not too bad; if you were in the 90th percentile, only 10 percent of babies would be bigger while 90 percent of babies would be smaller; this would mean a big baby. 20th percentile would be small--80% of babies are bigger than yours while 20% of babies are smaller.

Also, just an observation across the internet: if you want to abbreviate "percentile," it's %ile, NOT %tile; the word "percent" is replaced by the %, and you add "ile." When you say %tile, you're saying "percent tile"... I don't think anyone wants a baby who is 56% tile! haha.