I'm afraid of even writing about this because I can just imagine the accusatory responses I will get. But here goes. We had The Bois' 4 month well baby visit and the nurse practitioner was all compliments and The Bois performed like only The Bois can. But (and I can't believe I keep persevering over this!) he is 30th percentile for weight, 30th percentile for head circumference and only 3rd percentile for height! Yikes! Quite Danny Devitoid. SR and I are not short and neither are our parents. I'm the shortest among everyone at 5'6".
Of course I am tempted to blame myself in some way. Is it my weight loss and decreased production of breast milk? SR thought that was preposterous. Is it because I forget to give him his vitamin D drops? I did a little reading about baby growth and it said before 6 months, height is determined by "in utero environment." So immediately I accused myself of running too much during pregnancy and not gaining enough weight.
But am I being ridiculous? I remember a patient in medical school who was hospitalized for loss of proximal muscle control. She probably had polymyositis. Anyway, if you asked her "it all began when my cat jumped on my lap." Wow, how badly she wished that cat wouldn't have jumped on her lap! The point being, humans have a need to blame something when things don't go as planned. Should I blame myself for the Bois' short stature?
I will say that you apparently can't use the 4 month height to predict adult height as it fluctuates between percentiles so often. We'll have to wait until he's 2 to make any predictions apparently.
Running Song of the Day: Tree Bones by Port O'Brien
12 comments:
You ARE been ridiculous. Now, I am sure you'll do your study search and find a bunch of papers, and I am not even going into this part. As a Pediatrician-practitioner (btw, I was a Neonatologist back home) I say it's a variation and nothing more than that. Now relax and give some love to your boys, they need it more than your breast milk:)
Are you serious? Oh, SLG. I cannot believe it. How tall is SR? I would venture to say that height is genetic. Perhaps you have a mix of short and tall folks in your family. Listen to how it sounds when someone else says it.
"My diet and exercise resulted in a short baby. BTW, he's barely 6 months old." I don't mean to chide you, but step back and review it.
Length (I won't say height until he can walk) at his age means almost nothing, if there are no other concerns. And, if he's always small, what difference does it make? I'll arrange a playdate with a girl with Russell-Silver syndrome I know, who'll never be a 5 footer.
OK, no more worrying!
LOL!
The Bois sounds just fine to me. I bet he'll have a growth spurt (both my kids did and they are now quite tall, especially my daughter).
I agree. Is there a correlation between birth weight, weight at 4 months and diet when they were in the womb? My daughter's in the 3rd percentile for weight... I try not to blame myself for all the cupcakes I ate during my pregnancy... wayyyy not healthy there.
Okay, okay. Thanks, guys! And wow, Olga, it's great to have an opinion from an expert. I had no idea you were a Neonatologist.
I just wanted to be honest about his height, since I did conduct an experiment of sorts with all the exercise I got during pregnancy. Plus I'm simply a mom who worries, sometimes irrationally.
I was a munchkin child, in both height and weight, according to my parents. They couldn't get me to grow.
I was even a munchkin teenager, in height. I thought I would always be tiny.
Then, between the ages of 17 and 20(!), I grew from 5 foot 1 to 5 foot 6.
Is that weird or what? I know it's anecdotal, but, well, it just goes to show the variation in the population is tremendous.
Sorry you're worrying,
Meghan
This reminds me of my friend who didn't know she was pregnant (wasn't trying) and drank a fair amount early in her pregnancy (before knowing). When her son was little-er, every ear infection, cough, bout of illness, rash, you name it, she would say "it's because I drank when I was 4 weeks preggo." He's an awesome kid, super smart, super healthy, but I'm sure when he gets his first bad grade or whatever she'll say it's because she drank when she was preggo.
P.S. My friend (different one) had a ginormous baby who hurt her back carrying his gigantitude around. He's normal size now.
I don't normally comment, but I always thought hieght was in genetics. Besides he may not have hit his growth in that area yet. With that said my boy is over the 75th for height (almost 7) and my girl is at/just over the 100th for height(4yrs). I am barely 5"4 and my husband is right under 6ft.
All in all this comment was meant to say, don't worry yourself about it.
As long as he's hitting his developmental milestones, I wouldn't worry about his size yet.
I'm not sure three's anything anyone can say to stop a mother from worrying, but I think the others are right on this one-- as long as other developmental milestones are there, don't worry.
My mother is a tiny woman (4'11") she gave birth to big babies. I was born 22" long, was tall compared to other kids for a while, but my adult height is 5'2" (first thing in the morning). So my size as an infant was not indicative of my size as an adult.
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