It’s easy to worry about your baby - it's what happens
naturally as parents. But one of the things you really shouldn’t worry about
quite so much is your baby's weight. The problem is though that one of the
first questions everyone will ask you when you announce the arrival of your
little one is how much they weigh, after which they will usually comment on
this. Then you'll be asked at regular intervals how much they now weigh, and of
course there will be regular meetings with other parents, where everyone will
compare their baby's weight and size. It can lead to new parents wondering, is my baby normal?
Let’s be clear about one thing here - there is no such
thing as a 'normal' weight. Babies are different, and there can be huge
variations between babies born at the same time, either on time or either side
of the due date. The average weight of a new born baby is between about 2.5kg
(5lb 8oz) and 4.5kg (9lb 14oz), which itself is a fairly broad range of
weights. But just because these are average numbers doesn't necessarily mean
that they should be classed as normal. The words average and normal are too
easily interchanged, but this isn’t the same thing at all.
Average weight is 2.5kg
(5lb 8oz) and 4.5kg (9lb 14oz)
The next thing to worry about as a parent is checking
your baby does well by comparing their birth weight to their weight a few days
later. Most parents expect to see their baby gradually putting weight on. After
all, it’s the one thing you can expect a baby to do - grow. Yet many parents
worry frantically when they see that a few days later their baby hasn’t put on
any weight, and in fact has actually lost weight. A week later, they see that
their baby is still losing weight, and the temptation then is to feel that as a
parent you are somehow doing something wrong. Rest assured, you're not. It’s
actually entirely normal for a baby to lose a fair bit of weight in the first
week and a half or ten days. They are gradually getting used to feeding on
breast milk, and they won’t start putting weight on until well into their
second week.
Your baby can lose weight after birth
The reason for this is that a baby will usually put on a
little extra weight just before the birth in order to prepare for it. If it’s
hard work for the mother to give birth, it’s just as hard for the baby, and so
to prepare for this they put on a little extra weight. Once they’re born they
will naturally shed this extra weight without apparently doing anything to
achieve it. But lose it they almost certainly will, and so don’t worry if your
baby's weight drops after birth.
Even if your child is below the outer boundaries for
weight and height, this isn't necessarily time to be concerned. Your health
visitor will be keeping a close eye on your child's development, and as long as
they are feeding, growing, and putting weight on fairly steadily, there's no need
to worry. Statistically it is almost impossible for your child to be spot on
the average. In fact it is possible that when recording average weights of
children in a group of one hundred that not one single baby is actually the
average weight. It’s nonsense to assume that anything other than average is
abnormal.
A Health Visitor will regularly check your baby's health
By about six months old your child will have pretty much
doubled their birth weight, and you'll start to wonder what all the fuss
was about!
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