You may be asking yourself: Why is my baby not gaining weight? Your baby has not gained as much weight as expected and you’re understandably worried. The first step is to determine if there is an underlying problem or whether its a false alarm or due to unrealistic expectations. Learn why your baby is not gaining weight.
As a parent, you’re not expected to know about infant growth. It’s your baby’s healthcare professional who is responsible to guide you. What you may be unaware of is that mistakes can occur and these can cause needless anxiety for parents.
Catch-down growth involves a natural period of slow growth that is normal for some babies. It is often mistaken as poor growth. This mistake can lead to flawed feeding advice that has the potential to cause infant feeding and growth problems. Knowing the difference between catch-down growth and poor growth could benefit your baby’s health and spare you needless anxiety.
If your baby is not gaining weight as expected, one of the first things to consider is if this could be due to a variation of normal growth. Not all health professionals are aware of variations in normal growth and as a result they are often mistaken as poor growth. Being aware of variations in infant growth could spare you unnecessary anxiety.
Having your baby weighed regularly is one way to confirm that he’s growing well. If he achieves an expected weight gain this provides reassurance. But what if he doesn’t? Does this mean there’s a problem? Not necessarily! It could be a false alarm.
Most parents experience anxiety when it appears that their baby has not gain enough weight. Many suffer needlessly due to receiving misleading information about average weight gain figures for babies. This article assists parents to better understand their baby’s growth and decide if there is reason for concern.
Your baby is skinny. You have been told he’s underweight. Should you be worried? Maybe! Maybe not! Its important to know there’s a difference between an underfed baby, which is cause for concern, and a genetically lean baby, which is not a reason to worry. This article explains the difference.
