Susan, do you give any credence to the concept of "catching up" and "catching down" in weight? The family doctor I had when my daughter was a baby mentioned this, and I had another pediatrician mention this in an interview last year.

What the doctor I interviewed said was that weight at birth does not correlate with adult height and weight, but weight at one year does. The baby who is born small (perhaps because of being premature, or because of placental problems, etc.) but who is genetically destined to be big, will need to "catch up" in weight. He may start at below the 3rd percentile on the weight charts but will eat lots and gain quickly until he reaches a much higher percentile by his first birthday. 

On the other side, you have babies who are born "big" (in some cases, for example, because the mother has gestational diabetes, or for other unknown reasons) but who are genetically destined to be small. These babies will, according to the doctor, need to "catch down." They may start at a level above the 50th percentile but need to drop down, by gaining weight at a slower rate, until they reach their correct percentile at one year. 

I did talk with one of the researchers on the WHO growth charts who said it is important to remember that the curves are just averages of the actual weight patterns, and that in fact the weights are much more scattered (and these were all healthy babies). He commented that 18% of the babies dropped down to a lower curve at some point. 

Teresa Pitman

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome