Because I wasn't able to attend the LLLI conference, I picked some of the
sessions I would have liked to attend and ordered the tapes. Yesterday I
listened to one on case studies and was very intrigued by some of the
information on weight gain. The LC explained that new studies suggest a baby
should gain at least an ounce a day and should be gaining about 2 pounds a
month.

This has been a particular interest of mine because my daughter (now almost
23) was a slow-gaining baby. She was born weighing 8 pounds, and gained
approximately a pound a month in the early months, slowing down after 6
months or so. She weighed just over 17 pounds at a year. She was exclusively
breastfed, started solids at about 10 months and even at a year ate only
small amounts. As an adult, she is 5'2" tall (same as me) and weighs about
100 pounds (as I did at her age). (And she's just graduated at the top of
her program in university, so there seem to be no intellectual deficits from
lack of food!)

My doctor was completely supportive and told me that a baby's birthweight is
influenced by many factors and does not correlate with weight as an adult.
The child's weight at one year, however, does correlate with height and
weight as an adult. So while my daughter was at the 75% percentile at birth,
and the 20% at one year, the doctor did not see that as a problem.

I have passed this advice/information on to other parents. Recently I was
working with a mother whose baby was born weighing 10 lbs. 4 oz. - top of
the charts! The parents were average sized, a bit bigger than me but
certainly not unusually tall or heavy. The baby gained weight very slowly
but steadily and at 5 months is approaching the middle range of the chart. I
see this as a baby who was "overweight" at birth and is now "growing down"
to his expected size.

My own records as a baby show that I was born weighing 5 lb. 8 oz. and
weighed about 17 pounds at a year! In my daughter's case, she just doubled
her birth weight, in my case I tripled mine. Yet we both ended up about the
same size.

I wondered if anyone has more information on this. Is my information
inaccurate? What should we be telling parents about weight gain in their
babies? When is supplementation necessary?

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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