General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.

Originally posted by TexLex
So my kid is huge and I'm bit worried that he's gonna be wider than he is tall. Right now he is 95% for height and off the chart for weight, which is about proportionate for now. If our bathroom scale is right, he is about 26lbs at 8mos.

We've got the opposite problem. I'd trade you--unless my wife can stop feeling guilty about it. Same age, but only 16.5 pounds. which is down around 20%ile. Height, oddly, is over 75%ile. Combined, she's 3%ile weight for height. Breast fed. Homemade baby food since six mos. (except rice cereal). No (real) milk

Developmentally she's fine, though, which I keep telling my wife. Besides, both her parents are not slimmies, and the last thing we need is a complete chunker. I'm fine with it and figure she'll be fine. My wife worries about it all the time. She doesn't seem to buy my argument that percentiles are just that, and suggest normal ranges, adn that it's not hte SAT, where a high percentile is what you want.

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Anon Parent
We've got the opposite problem. I'd trade you--unless my wife can stop feeling guilty about it. Same age, but only 16.5 pounds. which is down around 20%ile.

Don't worry about it. My kid is in the 5th percentile for weight and about the 40th for height. Drives the chicks crazy.

[viet_mom]

Originally posted by TexLex he is about 26lbs at 8mos

Whew! Vietbabe is 22 lbs at 22 months and your's is 26 lbs at 8 mos. Amazing the variety. Based on other parents with chunkers, I think by age 1 1/2 to 2, they move closer to the mid-range in height and weight and your kiddie won't be 50 lbs at age 2. Anyway, if your son feels bad, he can talk to DTB's son who is working through fat issues.

Vietmom
(Speaking of fat, remember I said I was going to buck the Atkins trend and go on a high carb and low fat diet? The results are NOT pretty. You know you're a fatty when your UNDERWEAR feel tight.)

[OscarCrease]

How big are you guys? We stressed out a lot about these charts and percentiles at the other extreme - because our kids are so mini - until I found height/weight percentile chart for adults. I'm 49% and my wife is 40% so certainly we can't expect our spawn to be six footers.

Not sure if this is your first baby but just anecdotally, both of mine ate like sows up until they walked and then the wheels came off. My 4 yr old now eats approximately 40 calories a week and the 15 mo. old has fallen off a cliff in terms of his consumption over the last month or so. Maybe the Lexling will thin out as he gets more active.

I'm tall from tall stock and hubby is reasonably tall, but not from tall stock. He is large. I would love to drop a few pounds, but not huge by any means, though I have to work at it to stay thin. According to the charts, Lexling will be min. 6'3". We were both big babies - I think I have said that before - and neither small kids, esp. hubby. His parents are/were very overweight. I may just be paranoid about this. Oh, and when I said milk, I meant boobjuice, not formula, fwiw.

[Flanders]

Our little monkey weighs 15lbs and is 27" tall. 80th percentile height, 30% percentile weight. We were also concerned re the weight issue but our pediatrician tells us that breast fed babies usually weigh less than formula babies. Any truth to this? Wondering if we need to beef the little one up?!?

[taxwonk]

No, Tex, your baby isn't too fat. No, Flanders, your baby doesn't need to be put on steroids. They're fucking babies, okay. Some are round and pudgy; some are skinny and some are somewhere in between. You'll have the rest of their lives to program then with your own insecurities about body image and size. Just visit the FB and you'll understand how effectively we all get programmed that way.

Unless your pediatrician has said there's a reason to be concerned, there isn't. The fat ones get skinner. The skinny ones get fatter. Just like grown-ups, babies come in different sizes.

And to head off your next panic attack, no, they won't all start walking the same day. And they won't start talking the same day. Just enjoy them for who they are. Soon enough, they'll learn to say no, and start ignoring you. Don't rush the agita.

[OscarCrease]

I concur with Taxwonk's existential approach to this issue. For the more compulsive among us; the background to this whole "percentile thing" is that back in the 60's the WHO did a study that was based on a statistical pool of upper middle class, white, formula fed babies. (You tend to forget that for awhile there breastfeeding was considered low class and formula the way to go.)

In any event, it's been a long standing criticism of these charts that they don't account for the fact that breastfed babies tend to be smaller than formula fed babies and that there are pretty big ethnic/racial differences in "average" size.

So those breast fed Latino/Asian/French babies are going to look small on the charts next to the formula fed Northern European baby and both are absolutely "normal."

Originally posted by taxwonk
No, Tex, your baby isn't too fat......Unless your pediatrician has said there's a reason to be concerned, there isn't.

Yeah...she has. That's why he's not allowed juice.

The milestone thing doesn't freak me out at all, though, especially since he seems to be on track for everything. It took him a long time to roll over since he is so chubby, but has caught up since. When he pulls up, I don't worry about him falling for the most part since he comes with built in padding!

Originally posted by Flanders
We were also concerned re the weight issue but our pediatrician tells us that breast fed babies usually weigh less than formula babies. Any truth to this? Wondering if we need to beef the little one up?!?

They are supposed to start out fatter and then, according to the lastest study, become leaner toddlers and adults also with lower risk of diabetes and all sort of things. We are waiting for that lean part of the study to kick in.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by TexLex
They are supposed to start out fatter and then, according to the lastest study, become leaner toddlers and adults also with lower risk of diabetes and all sort of things. We are waiting for that lean part of the study to kick in.

The lean part kicks in when they start walking. Or really, when they start running. The baltspawn stayed at about the same weight for six or nine months while growing several inches and eating like teenagers. The activity is what does it. You will lose weight at the same time, for much the same reason.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by OscarCrease
I concur with Taxwonk's existential approach to this issue. For the more compulsive among us; the background to this whole "percentile thing" is that back in the 60's the WHO did a study that was based on a statistical pool of upper middle class, white, formula fed babies. (You tend to forget that for awhile there breastfeeding was considered low class and formula the way to go.)

Not to mention the fact that many of the parents being told their kid is "___ percentile" tend to be bright and educated enough to remember percentiles from elementary school aptitude tests, where they scored well, but not bright enough to remember that percentiles are designed to be a statistical measure, not an individual one. Wanting your kid to be in the 50th percentile of everything is an exercise in insanity that only the well-educated seek out. In any event, the Law of Large Numbers makes it comforting to think that your kid who's in the 90th percentile for weight, while he may be the fattest kid out of most, but not all, randomly selected groups of ten, is also one of 402,172 kids born last year who are the same weight or fatter. Etc.

So relax. The biggest schmucks in the world are competitive people who are competitive about their kids, and you don't want to start down the wrong slippery slope.

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Not to mention the fact that many of the parents being told their kid is "___ percentile" tend to be bright and educated enough to remember percentiles from elementary school aptitude tests, where they scored well, but not bright enough to remember that percentiles are designed to be a statistical measure, not an individual one. Wanting your kid to be in the 50th percentile of everything is an exercise in insanity that only the well-educated seek out. In any event, the Law of Large Numbers makes it comforting to think that your kid who's in the 90th percentile for weight, while he may be the fattest kid out of most, but not all, randomly selected groups of ten, is also one of 402,172 kids born last year who are the same weight or fatter. Etc.

So relax. The biggest schmucks in the world are competitive people who are competitive about their kids, and you don't want to start down the wrong slippery slope.

My kid can beat up your kid.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Flinty_McFlint
My kid can beat up your kid.

Oh, it's on. His monkey ass is grass.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Flinty_McFlint
My kid can beat up your kid.

Fuckin' primate.