How much should a child weigh?

The birth of a child is a serious event in the life of any parent, for his tasks include not only love, but also upbringing and caring for the baby. Indirect and important indicator of the health of the child of the first year of life is his monthly weight gain, which can tell the pediatrician and parents about whether his food is fully nutritious, whether he is starving, or, on the contrary, overeating.

Lack of weight in a child can be a sign of neurological problems, digestive disorders, pathology of the digestive tract, etc. Diagnosis of excess weight in a child may indicate a possible risk of metabolic disorders. Therefore, mothers usually want to know "How much should a child weigh in 1 month, 2 months, at 3.4 ...?"


The norm of weight in children of the first year of life

To find out how to calculate the correct weight of a child for a certain age, you can use the table of average increases for each month.

Age of child, months. Weight gain for the month, g
Girls Boys Average increase
1 400-900 400-1200 600
2 400-1300 400-1500 800
3 500-1200 400-1300 800
4 500-1100 400-1300 750
5 300-1000 400-1200 700
6th 300-1100 400-1000 650
7th 200-800 200-1000 600
8 200-800 200-800 550
9 100-600 200-800 500
10 100-500 100-600 450
eleven 100-500 100-500 400
12 100-500 100-500 350

When calculating the weight of a child, it must be taken into account that these tables are not an axiom, since each person is individual. In about 10% of children, the monthly weight gain may be lower than the minimum declared in the table for a certain period, or, conversely, exceed the maximum indicated, and, nevertheless, it will be physiological for him. Weight gain reflects not only how a person eats, but also activity, in some cases a genetic predisposition. It may well be that the weight gain of a child of large parents will go beyond the limits of the tabular rate, a baby of miniature parents may not get to the established minimum due to their family constitution.

When is weight a cause for concern?

In general, focus on the average weight for a child of any age is only in cases predisposing to anxiety. For example, if your mother thinks that she does not have enough milk, and her baby does not eat. In the case of feeding an infant from a bottle, parents know the exact amount of food they eat, and when breastfeeding, it is impossible to determine how much milk the grams have eaten in a gram.

The statement of weight loss in a child, as well as in cases where it remains unchanged compared to last month's measurements, may be evidence of insufficient milk or lack of milk. In this situation, the pediatrician usually assigns a complementary mixture to the lactation. If the child is more than 5 months old, the doctor can recommend the lure of porridges to make up for the lack of carbohydrates and trace elements in the baby's nutrition.

However, it happens that the child does not gain weight due to poor health in connection with the teeth. Associated with their a bad appetite and an intestinal disorder do not contribute to a sufficient increase. Usually, with the appearance of teeth, unpleasant symptoms disappear, appetite and digestion normalize, and the child quietly continues to gain the prescribed grammes.

There are also opposite situations when the child is too fast gaining weight. Excessive supplementation can be associated with improper feeding of the nursing mother (many carbohydrates), which affects the high caloric content of breast milk, or with a metabolic disorder in the baby in case of risk of diabetes. Here the doctor can recommend taking tests for sugar, and also tell you how you can lose weight to a child, and what diet to adhere to a nursing mother. Normalize the weight of the child in case of excessive increase can be with increasing intervals between feedings (up to 4-5 hours) and introduction of vegetable complementary foods (if the child is more than 4.5 months old).