Pat, I have reread your posts on the 3 month old who
is at 5% on the weight charts. I also read your
comments that this baby is healthy.   I must be
missing something (it wouldn't be the first time)
because in a thin but otherwise healthy baby I would
question whether there is a problem.

In the U.S. (maybe elsewhere?) everyone wants
babies to be at the 95% or higher, as if it means the
baby is somehow precocious or otherwise superior. If
the growth charts are based on a curve, SOMEONE
has to be in that lower 5%. It sounds like this family
might "run thin" as did my mother and her siblings
(boy, the tendency stopped when my dad's genes
were added to the pool...) You mention that the
siblings are thin, healthy children. If the breastmilk
were the "culprit" then it would seem that older kids
(who can eat "real" food, wink wink) would fatten up.
BTW: My own mother spent a lifetime trying to get UP
to 110 lbs; I have memories of her eating boxes of
chocolate bars and consuming high calorie milk
shakes. At least in her case, consuming fats didn't
help. (It just made everyone around her envious)

I'm assuming that the HCPs have ruled out an
underlying physical problem? There isn't overuse of
pacifier?

I've had two patients in the past year who had bf
babies in the 10th%. Everyone kept a wary eye but
both are thriving toddlers now. Still thin but healthy.

Keep us posted on this baby.

Margery Wilson, IBCLC
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Medical Department
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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