How long to get back to birth weight?

[BunnyN]

Sorry if there have already been a bunch of threads about this but I didn't come across any. I know the goal is for a baby to make it back to birth weight by 2 weeks but our little girl has been slower to put on weight. She was 9lbs 5oz at birth but lost just over 10% of her weight which is quite a lot and at over 3 weeks isn't back to her birth weight. The midwife said not to worry because she looks very healthy in every way, is very alert ans is developing well, and is feeding well and is putting on weight, just a bit slowly but it just seems to be how she is. I do agree with her and I've not been very worried about it so far but I'm not sure that she is going to make it back to her birth weight by 4 weeks which does seem like a long time I wondered what others experiences are and when I should start to worry about it.

 

[Claire123]

Hiya, we were in the same boat. My little girl was 9lb 14oz when born but dropped to 8lb 14oz (was just hitting the 10% mark)

She was born 10th January, and on 12th feb she was back up to 9lb 14oz. So just over 4 weeks.

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as she is fine within herself and plenty wet and dirty nappys she will grow at her own pace x
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[PINK BUTTERFLY]

My Chloe was 7lbs 3oz when born on 19th Dec but went down to 6lbs 4oz by Christmas Eve (12%) had to take her to hospital and have bloods done and be checked over but she was totally healthy, was told had to fatten her up (what I wanted to) so advices to breast feed and bottle feed (every 2 hours, so breast then bottle 2 hours after etc) then HV came back two weeks later (about that) and she had put on lots (haven't got details with me) but wasn't had her birth weight still so she send us back to hospital!!! The hospital told us to ignore HV and that if course she still wasn't at birth weight as she had lost so much but she was gaining well so to keep doing what we was doing. Told HV and she was not happy but on her next visit she had no choice to sign us off as she had by then gone over birth weight but it did take her a long time!

She is only 13lbs 7oz now and she is nearly 6months what fine

As long as she is putting weight on and I'd healthy, drinking, filling nappys and alert then all is fine......she says even though I totally panicked both times sent to hospital :-/ x

 

[BunnyN]

Hiya, we were in the same boat. My little girl was 9lb 14oz when born but dropped to 8lb 14oz (was just hitting the 10% mark)

She was born 10th January, and on 12th feb she was back up to 9lb 14oz. So just over 4 weeks.

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as she is fine within herself and plenty wet and dirty nappys she will grow at her own pace x
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks that helps, sounds very similar to us. That puts my mind at rest. We have been doing our checkups with a private midwife who I am very happy with but she did warn us that when we go to the doctors they might make a bigger deal about her weight so not to get scared by them. I am BF and she feeds well and I have plenty of milk so I don't want to supplement with formula which is what I think the doctor will suggest. But she really is very healthy in every other way and exceptionally alert so I am not worried about it really. She has rather a lot of dirty nappies in fact so I think part of it might be that her digestion just works a bit fast.

 

[Belfast girl]

My first lost about 12% and took 4 weeks, she is now a v healthy toddler and this one lost 5% and took 3 weeks.

Neither the midwives or HV were that worried as they were both alert, plenty of nappies etc.

 

[missyeovil]

I was told by my midwife it was different for BF babies anyway as they will only take what they need which obviously varies from baby to baby. I think the 2 weeks thing is based on all babies in general so definitely don't worry, I'm sure she's doing just fine xx

 

[BunnyN]

Thanks for all the answers. I really wasn't worried about it at all to start with but I kind of thought that once she started gaining she would make up the weight fast but she seems to have kept on at the same steady but slow weight gain. She is gaining about 100g (3.5 oz) a week. So she is going to be about 5 weeks when she reaches her birth weight at this rate. She had quite a high birth weight and looked really chubby so I think she could afford to loose a bit more than if she had been a slim baby to start with. She is much slimmer looking now but doesn't look underweight.