Is my baby growing well?

Compared to other periods of life, infancy is the period of most rapid growth and development. After the first year, the rate of growth slows down considerably. The length of the pregnancy, your pre-pregnancy weight, and weight gain during pregnancy all influence a baby’s birth weight. In this post we give mom’s guidance on how to tell is their baby is growing well.

Weight

• A birth weight of above 2.5kg is considered to be normal.
• Below 2.5kg, the baby is referred to as a low birth weight infant.
• A baby with a birth weight of above 4.0kg is called macrosomic infant (macro=large; soma-body).
• In the first few days of life, a baby can be expected to lose about 6% of their body weight. Birth weight is generally regained between the 7^th and 10^th day.
• Baby’s double their birth weight by 4 to 6 months.
• Birth weight is generally tripled by 1 year of age.

Length

• Infants increase their length by out 50% in the first year of life, and double it by four years.
• Genetic factors are the predominant influence on length during the first 3 years of life.
• From birth to 24 months of age, body length increases about 75%.
• Your child’s height at 24 months is about 50% of his/her final mature height while. In other words, your child’s adult height can be estimated by doubling your child’s height at 24 months.

Head circumference

• Head circumference is a reflection of brain growth and development.
• Remarkably, during the same period of birth to 24  months, brain size increases to more than 80% of adult brain size and, by the age of six, its size is 95% that of the adult.

Too little weight?

Even if your child was born small, weight and height should increase at a steady rate. However there are times when weight gain may slow down, stop, or even decrease altogether, for example:

• Illness
• Undiagnosed disease
• Hospital admission
• Introduction of solids
• Stopping of breastfeeding
• Birth of another child
• Emotional or family problems

Too much weight?

For an undernourished child weight gain is a sign of good recovery and is called ‘catch-up growth.’ However a child of normal weight that is rapidly increasing in weight is concerning. Though weight gain is encouraged, too much weight gain is also a problem. 

In the past, concern about rapid growth was virtually nonexistent. This view has since changed with evidence showing that too rapid growth can come at a cost: increased risk of chronic diseases in adult life such as obesity and its co-morbidities i.e. hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. Overfeeding and overnutrition in infancy and childhood may thus be the cause of increasing obesity rates in adults.

Growth monitoring

Clinic visits are the most important way to monitor your baby’s growth. Babies and young children are growing constantly, and thus need periodic assessments to detect and manage any problems early.

Regular weigh-ins are the best way to identify if there is growth faltering. Weights are plotted on growth curves to reflect a growth pattern. From these growth curves health professionals can identify if your child is growing healthily, slowly, fast, or not at all.

The table below is a guideline for the criteria used to identify growth failure.

Age	No weight gain for	Or loss of weight of
Birth to 3 months	2 weeks	100g
4 to 6 months	1 month	250g
7 to 12 months	6 weeks	500g
13-24 months	3 months	1kg

References

Bier DM. Growth in the First Two Years of Life. 2008. Nestlé Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program, vol 61, pp 135–144.

Hanson LA et al. Growth and Nutrition: The First Six Months. 2008. Nestlé Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program, vol 61, pp 123–134.

Mahan, LK and Escott-Stump, S. Krause’s Food and Nutrition Therapy. 2008. 12^th Edition. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.