Chris had his four month doctor's visit today, and a couple of things are worrisome to me. His weight is 12 lb, now only in the fifth percentile. That's down from the 20th percentile at two months, and 40th at birth. He is a week short of four months (I found out they measure it by date of the month, not weeks since birth.) His head is 17.5 inches, still 90th percentile, and his length is 23.5 inches, 17th percentile. The PA we saw today wasn't concerned about Chris' low weight, but I am. At my request, he has a appointment in a month for a weight recheck. I don't know why he is so skinny. He seems to be satisfied after feeding. I am concerned that he is falling off of his growth curve. Anything outside of the 5th to 95th percentiles is concerning.
The other concern was that he didn't score so well on his developmental questionnaire. He scored lower than expected on gross motor, fine motor, and social development, and now he has a referral in to evaluate for possible developmental delay. This doesn't mean at this point that he has a diagnosis of developmental delay, however it could be possible. To diagnose developmental delay, he would need to be consistently missing milestones, and this was just a screening questionnaire that I filled out. However, it's a possibility that Chris may end up having developmental delays. Developemental delays and having a special needs child are something I worried about occasionally during the pregnancy, but I haven't thought about it since the delivery since he seemed healthy. He still seems healthy to me. I don't think he's slow. I know that he still can't really lift his head up very well, but it's so big, and he's getting better at it. I looked back at the questionnaire that they had me fill out, and I could have given him some more points on some of the questions. The possiblity that Chris could have developmental problems was completely unexpected. I mean, I'm a doctor and Doug is a rocket scientist! He should be brilliant! Regardless of how things turn out, he's still my beautiful baby and we will love him just the same. Hopefully this was just a blip, an erroneous questionnaire.
The End of an Era
3 years ago
Oh hon, take a deep breath. He's ONLY 4 months old!! He will be just fine. All kids develop differently, and boys tend to lag a little behind. Chances are he'll have a growth and developmental spurt at some point and zip right past the normal range :)
ReplyDeleteAnd, I know I'm no doctor (but I play one on TV!), but my friends and I have always been told that weight is not an issue if it's comparable to height. So because Chris is low on both height and weight, he's just fine. And they fluctuate lots in that percentile range. If the Doctor isn't concerned and he doesn't seem hungry, I'm sure he's just fine. If you really think he needs to bulk up have you thought about starting solids at 4 months instead of waiting until 5 or 6? Just a thought.
Hang in there, Eiko!! You're doing a great job!
Don't sweat a thing. I was developmentally delayed (didn't walk or talk till way late) and way below the 5th percentile for weight all through childhood, but everything worked out fine.
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