Today Sean had his fifteen-month-checkup. Height was 30.5 inches and weight was 22 pounds 9.6 ounces. When the pediatrician pointed out that these measurements put Sean in the 25th percentile for both height and weight, I mentioned that I had found a chart from the World Health Organization for exclusively breastfed babies (on that chart, Sean's weight is in ~70th percentile). She said that the AAP growth charts are for ALL babies, regardless of feeding habits. (Oh, well...)
Sean pushed the wheeled stool all over the room and I had to keep him from running over the nurse's feet while she was writing in the chart. The doc had a med student training with her and they were both impressed when Sean pointed to his teeth and said, "Teet." Plus, they were charmed when Sean was giving high-fives. Quite the charmer! We're going to have to be careful...
2 comments:
Hi Risse,
Henry is in the 1st percentile for weight according to AAP vs. 15th in the WHO. It's very interesting. I actually have a friend who says her pediatrician just looks at length and not weight. My pediatrician also commented that if she has a patient adopted from China, she does NOT use the chart from the AAP but one from China. However, she says the height is pretty consistent even though the weight isn't. Thanks for sharing the info. Good to hear that Sean is healthy!!!! Love, Ate Mil
Yeah, I don't actually think that the AAP chart is fair for exclusively breastfed babies. It may be adjusted for the percentage of breastfed & formula-fed babies, but when the majority of babies are formula fed past six months of age, then the data will be skewed towards the heavier weights of formula-fed babies! In any case, the docs always stress that the important thing is that Sean is meeting all his developmental milestones. I just keep reminding myself it's not a competition, right? ;)
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