Percentiles and Growth Standards for breast-fed babies

[scrub-jay]

Just thought I'd share this - you may all already know about it however. One of the birth-prep classes we took was with an amazing lactation consultant and she recommended that this chart be used when looking at babies that are exclusively breast-fed. Her argument is that the percentiles that are used in the US were based on standards established by studies of primarily formula-fed babies (which can often gain more/faster than BF babies?).

The following site includes the growth standards based on a larger WHO study that incorporated mostly breast fed children babies. I'm not sure of the legitimacy of her story (of course she's biased toward BF) but the WHO study is legit and our ped said that not all peds use the exactly the same standards. So, take this with a grain of salt and enjoy!

http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/en/

-C

[alison]

You're still here? Go have that baby, Crystal!

[madeintaiwan]

They definitely tend to have a different growth pattern. When we were in Davis, our ped used the BF chart for J. And that was 9 years ago, so the BF chart has been around for awhile now. Which is interesting that it's not more commonly used when applicable. My understanding was that BF'd babies have rapid growth in the first six months then taper off towards a year and remain steady there after. This has been my experience with all three of my children who were BF'd until 2.5 years, 22 months, and 12 months. J was 20 pounds at 4 months but 23 at 12 months. A was 20 lbs at 6 mos and 22 lbs at 12 months. My kids tend be 75th percentile and above for height and 30th and below for weight. J was only 20th percentile for weight for awhile. My peds have never fussed over percentiles [as long as my kids were "healthy," but I have had friends who have really gotten some extreme recommendations for treatment based on growth charts.

I take those growth charts with a grain of salt period. It's a little frightening, the level of obsession people can have over growth percentiles. Really all that matters is that the child is healthy and is growing at a consistent rate--not falling off the chart or jumping all over the place.

[Amiens]

I agree I think growth charts should be taken with a grain of salt, unless they are falling off, or all over the place. All 4 of my kids were breastfed (12 mos, 12 mos, 11 months, and 18 months). Only one of them during infancy fell off of the chart (10% down to -3%), and our ped was supportive in continuing breastfeeding and b/c ds (#2) had been on solid and so we had to get him some more calories and fat. He went right back up. I am faced with another child, my oldest is falling off of the growth chart-- height and weight, and we are watching her. It's not like she doesn't eat. As she approaches her 9th birthday we will take measurements again, and if she has leveled out from her last check or is continuing to fall she will see an peds endocrinologist as a preventive measure and to check things out.

[Vishenka69]

Davita, that's exactly what our pediatrician said, that she'll taper off in a couple of months. Although these charts are very similar to the ones in our peds office, her weight percentile is still the same but the height/length one is a bit higher.