Several possible factors can cause slow weight gain, from a medical condition to social or financial hardship. Anything that interferes with a child's access to food or ability to digest food can impair their growth.
Sometimes, a breastfed baby will gain weight more slowly than he or she should. This could be because the mother isn't making enough milk, the baby can't get enough milk out of the breast, or the baby has a medical problem. Your baby's healthcare provider should evaluate any instance of poor weight gain.
However, some children do not gain weight at a normal rate, either because of expected variations related to genetics, being born prematurely, or because of undernutrition, which may occur for a variety of reasons. Undernutrition is sometimes called a growth deficit, weight faltering, or faltering growth.
Sometimes a breastfed baby will gain weight more slowly than they should. This could be because the mother isn't making enough milk, or the baby can't get enough milk out of the breast. Or it could be that the baby may have a health problem.
Slow weight gain could be a problem if: your newborn doesn't regain their birth weight within 10 to 14 days after their birth. your baby up to 3 months old gains less than an ounce a day. your infant between 3 and 6 months gains less than 0.67 ounces a day.
Inadequate weight gain is one of the strongest indicators that a baby is not getting enough milk. After seven days, your baby has fewer than six wet diapers and four stools per day, her urine is dark yellow or specked with red, or her stools are still dark rather than yellow and loose.
When kids can't gain weight, they also often may not grow as tall as they should. Kids need to get enough calories to learn and develop well. So kids with failure to thrive might start to walk and talk later than other kids, and can have trouble learning in school.
If you focus on increasing your fat intake through unsaturated fats and limiting saturated and trans fat, you can increase the fat content in your breastmilk. Everything in moderation, though! You do not have to cut out every single bit of saturated or processed foods.
There are three reasons why babies do not gain weight: not taking in enough calories, not absorbing calories or burning too many calories. Full-term newborn infants should take in about 1.5 to 2 ounces of breast milk or formula about every 3 hours. Premature infants need more calories than term babies.
In addition to weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces, babies with low birth weight look much smaller than babies of normal birth weight. A low-birth-weight baby's head may look bigger than the rest of his or her body. He or she often looks thin with little body fat.
Sometimes, a perfectly healthy baby simply gains weight slowly because it's just his or her own unique growth pattern. In other situations, there's a problem that may or may not be easy to identify.
Genetically lean baby
Or he might have be born normal weight and become progressively leaner during the early months. Genetically lean babies are underweight babies when using medical criteria. Baby's length is as expected given the size of parents and other family members.
Turns out, the amount of fat in your milk at any given time depends on things we can't control, like time of day (milk produced in the evening tends to be higher in fat than milk made in the morning), how long it's been since your baby last fed (breastfed babies need to be fed when they indicate hunger), and how far ...
Breast milk composition changes during a feed, and fat concentration increases with longer nursing sessions.
Each child is born with a genetic blueprint for their predetermined size and shape. Some babies are supposed to be chunky. Some babies are supposed to be skinny. Along with this blueprint, they have the innate ability to eat the right amount of food to support their body type.
Babies usually gain 1 1/2 to 2 pounds and grow 1 to 1 1/2 inches each month during their first four months.
Malnourished children may be short for their age, thin or bloated, listless and have weakened immune systems. Nutritional disorders can affect any system in the body and the senses of sight, taste and smell. They may also produce anxiety, changes in mood and other psychiatric symptoms.
Problems with the endocrine system, such as thyroid hormone deficiency, growth hormone deficiency or other hormone deficiencies. Damage to the brain or central nervous system, which may cause feeding difficulties in an infant. Heart or lung problems, which can affect how oxygen and nutrients move through the body.