Several years ago when my son was just 6 months old, his doctor at the time was concerned about his low weight. I was breastfeeding him and his weight had been fine according to the pediatric charts for six months, but then it began slipping, ever so slightly. This tiny change put our family practice doc into a tizzy...Well, not exactly a tizzy, but he did make a drastic recommendation: He told me to stop breastfeeding because my son was diagnosed as failure to thrive.
Now it all seems like a small blip on my son's development, but at the time I was shocked that breastfeeding was not keeping my son's weight up. Turns out this phenomenon is not that uncommon for breastfed babies because they have a different growth curve than formula-fed babies according to Jeanne Sager at Babble.com. The percentile charts pediatricians use in the US are not perfect, and this is a problem when formula fed babies and breastfed babies in the US are compared using the same chart. At around 6 to 9 months breastfed babies tend to become quite lean.
So why do pediatricians continue to rely on the CDC percentile grwoth charts which do not compile data on breastfed babies? There are plenty of reasons they should not. According to Jeanne Sager's blog on Babble.com: "Instead of looking to the percentiles, we should consider a new kind of chart, says the WHO. By their metrics, we would judge children's progress in comparison not to each other, but to a fixed ideal. Advocates of the WHO model say that data developed in a study of children given the very best care and raised in the very best circumstances provides a standard less arbitrary than a percentile based on the growth of random children who may or may not be healthy."
The growth charts used in the US don't tell the whole story. Unfortunately it's easy for parents to become hyper focused on the numbers and ignore their child's development over time. I still remember hearing moms at playgroup proudly proclaiming that their big babies are off the charts. I've noticed that several of these big babes grew into "average" size kids now and I'm wondering if their moms are disappointed.
My son is not the smallest nor the biggest in his class now. When his doctor told me to stop breastfeeding at six months, I decided to contact a lactation consultant and a dietician and then opted to supplement his feedings with formula. I think he turned out just fine.
