Preemies weight at two years?

[mommy2maddie]

My daughter is 22 months and the doctor is ALWAYS getting on me about her weight. In January (I know that was quite a while ago, but it was her last doc appt.) she weighed 20lbs. 14 oz. and was 30 3/4 inches. So if I had my guess at the most she weighs 22lbs and is at the most 32 inches now. She has another doc appt in June and I am afraid she won't even be on the growth chart and her doctor is going to be very upset. You can obviously tell she is fed well, she has the huge belly on her little body! My husband is short and his whole family is short and skinny, so maybe she is going to take after them, and also she had a rough start she was only 2 lbs 7 oz when she was born! Should I be worried? How much did your preemies weigh at two? I have always heard that they need to be at least 25 lbs by two, and she is defintely not going to make that. Even worse is that her 6 month old brother weighs 18 lbs and they both wear the same size diapers!!!

[julieb]

First of all, I do not think your doctor should be getting upset with you...we worry enough about our kids without a doctor making us feel even worse. DS was severe IUGR at birth and weighed only 1 lb 10oz and he has been small ever since. I think he weighed about 20lbs when he was 2...he does not like to eat and we do our best, but you can't force a child to gain weight. Our pediatrician focuses on Mason's growth curve and as long as he is not going down in percentiles, she is fine with how much he weighs as long as he is healthy. Of course, we would all like him to be bigger but you can only do so much. My advice is to not worry about your doctor getting upset, you know you are a good mom and that is all that matters!

[muddmomma2]

Hi...I agree with JulieB. Your doctor should not be focusing on numbers as much as they should your individual child! Does your doctor ever use an adjusted growth chart to compare your childs growth and age with what it would have been in she were at term?

My situation is very similar! My son was bon at 29 weeks +3 days (I was curious as to when your daughter was born) and weighed exactly the same...2 lbs 7 oz and was 14 1/2 inches long! He has always been small! He always gained weight regularly though! He stuck at around 20-22 lbs for the longest time it seemed. The doctor always compared his growth with what it should have been if he were born at term...in other words making him seem almost 3 months younger! He is in the 5th % for his age and has always been at the bottom of the charts, but has done great according to the doctors because he takes into consideration he was born early and had to have extra time to catch up! His doctor predicted he would weigh about 24 lbs by the time he was two---which was a good weight fo him he said! He was right on the money too! He weighed almost exactly 24 lbs by the time he was two! Right under actually---I think! He has been about 32-33 inches for a while though!

I have never heard the "needs to be 25 lbs by two"...but IDK... of course I am not a doctor and we have to remember it is better if we do not compare children because they are simply so different and that is normal, but I completely understand...I worried about my sons weight the same as you...don't worry our children actually seem to be really close! AND you could always find a second oppion form a differnt doctor, just to ease your worry even more!
little

My son is now almost 28 months old and just reached 25 lbs! He is a very healthy, happy, smart little boy! :)

Does she eat well by the way?

[mommy2maddie]

She eats very well when she wants to! My daughter was born at 29 weeks 4 days weighed 2 lbs. 7 oz. and was 14 3/4 inches.

[muddmomma2]

That sounds like my son as well! He eats pretty good on most days! He can be a bottomless pit one day and then just pick at everything another...I think that is pretty typical though! Our kids were actually really close...pretty neat! Have you had any other complications or worries besides the weight gain?

Again it is very neat to find antoher parent with a child so similar to mine right down to almost the same day, weight and time---keep in touch and good luck! :)

[mommy2maddie]

I agree it is neat! The only other worries I really had with my daughter was doing all the basic stuff like crawling, pulling up to stand, and walking. Our doctor sent us to PT and OT, while the doctors at the follow-up clinic in the NICU told us that she was doing really really well for being born at 29 weeks. I feel like my doctor just doesn't really understand things about preemies, which isnt his fault, and he expects them to do those things when other kids do them or maybe a few weeks later. She didn't crawl until 11 months, pulled up to stand at 13 months, and walked at 17 months and the funny thing is that we took her out of PT and OT before she did any of this! I think alot of the problem was that she was so small size wise and she was scared, you could tell she was scared, about falling, but once she got over that she did really well. How about your son did he have any issues?

[muddmomma2]

I am so glad to hear your daughter is doing so good! Remeber it is very important to remember that all children develop differently, even the ones born at term! I am not a doctor but it sounds like she is doing great.

My son started crawling around 7-8 months, walking around 13-14, all of which were pretty early considering how early he was born! He was neer reffered to any type of therapy, but I was a stay at home mom and worked alot on ly own with him through out our days! BUT like I said ALL children are different. He has continued to do extremley well, but we have had some smaller issues like hernias, acid reflux, ear infections, and things to that nature to deal with.

Overall I feel blessed and lucky that he has done so well... I know I owe it all to God above!:) I hope your daughter continues, as I am sure she will, to do as well too!

[muddmomma2]

I also would like to add that we never treated my son as a "premmie", if that makes any since! Of course we did at first! But I mean once he came off of his O2 and heart monitor and seemed like a "normal" child, we treated him as a "normal" child! I feel this might have had an impact as well, but who really knows!!!??

[trish]

I'm sorry your Dr. is making you feel bad about her size!! It sounds like she's healthy & growing just fine to me!! My #3 Ali was barely even a preemie (born right at 36 weeks) and she is the same size as your DD. She was 2 at Christmas and was 22 lbs 4 oz & 31 inches at her 2 year WBV. But my Ped was fine with her weight/size because she's never been big, has consistently stayed on her "own curve" & had gained almost 3 lbs since her 18 month visit. And her "big" sisters were small too - neither of them 25 lbs by 2. Heck my middle DD was still 26 lbs at 3! It seemed like she'd never get over 30 lbs but she finally did at 4. LOL!

I actually just posted on FB this week that Ali's hit some kind of huge growth spurt recently because all of a sudden at 28 months she's now 24 lbs & 33 inches!! I know that's still pretty small but around here that's some amazing growing!!

[dohertyab]

It's just them. Keep watching HER curve. As long as she's active, hitting milestones, developing ok then I wouldn't worry about her actual weight. We were told that in the past they would force feed preemies to gain weight and that put them in high risk for diabetes, etc. Tara was just a little smaller than yours at birth and has never been on a curve. She eats when so inclined. Last night she had 3 large slices of roast beef while her bigger twin didn't make it through one. She will just eat when hungry. Every once and a while it bothers me, but there really is only so much you can do and food is a power struggle we chose not to fight. The advantage of kids of similar sizes is that the clothes are interchangable. So my 3 all wear the same size underwear, short sleeve t-shirts and shorts! Makes packing in the summer really nice!