In the first minutes after the birth of your baby, the doctor in the hospital measures his height and weight. These indicators - the first benchmark, and in the future personally you each month will need to determine how much your baby has grown and gained weight. Why is this important in the first year of a child's life? Yes, because the increase in height and weight can be judged on whether your baby is enough nutrition for a harmonious development.
What determines the weight of the newborn?
To date, the norm for a full-term newborn is considered to be 46-56 cm, and the average weight of a newborn usually ranges from 2,600 to 4,000. A child of more than 4,000 g is considered large. The reasons for such a high weight may be heredity or a violation of carbohydrate metabolism in the mother. By the way, the largest weight of a newborn (10,200 g) was recorded in Italy in 1955.
Low birth weight is most often the result of unsuccessful pregnancy. Children with low weight need more careful observation of the pediatrician.
Among the factors that can affect the weight of a child at birth are:
- mother's nutrition during pregnancy;
- psychoemotional and physical state of the mother;
- mother's weight before and during pregnancy;
- heredity;
- the floor of the baby.
In the first days of life, the child loses weight. Weight loss in newborns is due to loss of water from the baby's body through the skin and during breathing, the release of urine and original feces (meconium), drying up the umbilical cord. The maximum weight loss by the time of discharge from the hospital is 6-8% of the original body weight. The initial weight is usually restored to the 7-10 day of life of the baby.
Table of weight gain in newborns
Before you use the information on the approximate weight gain among the first year of life children, we want to draw your attention to the fact that all children are very different. Accordingly, the pace of weight gain of your son or daughter may differ from those presented in the table, but this need not necessarily be considered a deviation from the norm.
The weight of a child must necessarily correspond to his height. It is no accident that in the table we also show growth rates for children. In addition, the table displays not one, but even two most common options for determining the optimal weight gain and growth of the child.
So, in the first four to five months the rate of weight gain of a newborn is 125-215 g / week. Then the weight gain slows down, as the baby starts moving more actively, turning over, crawling, walking.
The dynamics of weight is well traced in the weekly measurement. And after the child reaches the age of 8 weeks, it is enough to carry out measurements once a month.
If the newborn is not gaining weight well
Most parents frighten the baby's too little weight. They constantly compare their child with his "well-fed" peers, and they gradually begin to feel that their newborn does not gain weight at all. The thoughts about probable problems with his health come to mind, although only the pediatrician can make such conclusions.
The reasons for not prompt weight gain may be different. The well-known fact that "babies" often gain weight more slowly than "artificial persons". And to track how much a baby eats breast milk a day - the task is not simple. Recommendation for mothers whose infants are gaining weight:
- Try to apply them as often as possible to the breast (especially at night, when the child does not distract from the process of eating).
- Monitor the amount of urine and feces (there should be many if the baby gets enough milk).
- Remove from the use of a pacifier and other imitators of the female breast, as they harm normal breastfeeding.
- To feed the baby on demand, regarding as a requirement any kind of his activity (if the eaten milk turns out to be superfluous, the baby will simply vomit without any particular discomfort).
The dynamics of weight can worsen due to increased motor activity of the child. Weight loss and / or a small increase in it can be explained by the transferred diseases of an infectious nature, diarrhea, allergies. In some cases, the child's small weight is a hereditary indicator. Other causes of insufficient weight gain should be determined
If the weight gain in a newborn is large
Too fast weight gain by the child is also a cause for concern, as it can negatively affect the baby's health. Full children are often less mobile, they later acquire motor skills, are prone to allergic reactions and prolonged course of diseases. Children on artificial feeding are more likely to exceed the norms of weight gain, since mothers can give them more amount of a mixture than is required. When introducing complementary foods for children with high weight, it is recommended to start with vegetable and fruit purees.