Emily used the velocity charts which are inappropriate for looking at the cumulative effect of slow growth over time. 

A baby who is growing at a reasonable velocity on the 3rd percentile of a weight for age chart will stay on that curve.  A baby who is at the 3rd percentile of normal velocity will not. Since babies do wobble in their weight gain,  sometimes even losing weight when they are ill or going through an activity spurt, but they will then rebound when they overcome the illness and settle into a new activity level.  So overall, healthy babies will bounce around in velocity around the 50th percentile -- which is not the case with weight for age.

So, since Emily used a baby boy, I calculated the cumulative impact of the 1/2 ounce per day gain by 12 weeks.

Along that curve, a baby who is growing normally along the third percentile cruve is gaining at 30.0 g /day on average from day 9 until 8 weeks when it drops to 29.7 g/day and at 12 weeks it is 24.5 g/day.  

Comparing that baby to the baby who grows 1/2 per day from day 3, the baby will end up being 44.9 oz or 314 grams below where he should have been.  That is actually a physiologically significant deficit that should not be ignored.

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