Weight Gain

Just wondering how much babies usually gain on breast milk, my older 4 where only bf'd till 4-6 weeks. Leon has gained 600grams in 6 weeks.

It really does vary from baby to baby. My eldest daughter was really slow gaining weight, she was an average weight but went right down to the bottom centile on the chart and stayed there throughout her first year. My youngest daughter was born the same weight and has gone up a centile and stayed there.

If you go by the books, I think they say an average of 1/2 pound per week, although you can't count the first few weeks because they usually lose weight at first and regain it by 2 weeks. 600g is almost 1.5lb, so if you go by that then he's doing fine.

As long as he is feeding well and lots of wet nappies, and looking healthy and happy, then he's doing great.I think there's too much focus on weight gain alone, they are all so different.

Reuben is gaining a lot of weight, he's been in the upper centile ever since he was born and hardly lost 5% of his birth weight before leaving hospital. One week he even gained 450g. He is doing really well but I think the reason might be because he was born late. Ususally he gains around 150-200g a week but it is slowing down now he is 13 weeks old. He is close to double his birth weight now. He was 3.5kg.

As a guide babies should gain 4oz - 8oz a week for the first 3 - 4 months. But as long as they are gaining weight and not losing any, then that is fine. It doesn't even matter if they have a couple of weeks of not gaining any weight. It's all normal. Lucinda tends to average a weight gain of 3 or 4oz a week, but has had some weeks where she has gained 5oz, 6oz and even 8oz a couple of weeks ago. But she's only a small baby so proportionately 4oz for her is more than 4oz for a bigger baby IYSWIM! She was 6lb 8oz when she was born (15 days late!), went down to 5lb 12oz at 10 days old and is now just over 11lb at 19 weeks. So should have just about doubled her birth weight at 6 months, so it's right for her.