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Baby Weight Percentages
What Percentile Is Your Child In, and Does It Matter?
By Lisa A. Goldstein
It's important to remember that where a child is in the percentiles does not mean that the child needs anything done. "Percentiles are of little value," says Dr. Charles Shubin, pediatrician at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. "It's the child's growth that matters."
Dr. Shubin's daughter was always below the 5th percentile and wound up being 4 feet, 10 1/2 inches tall. But her mother is only 4 feet, 11 inches, her mother's mother 4 feet, 9 inches, and Dr. Shubin's mother was only 4 feet, 11 inches too. "My daughter has familial short stature, normal for her," Dr. Shubin says. "Her growth was normal. The same would apply to the other end of the spectrum."
When asked how much these percentiles predict the child's weight later on, Dr. Lonzer says they're good predictors, but nothing is 100 percent. "If, over time, your child eats out more and eats more fast food, watches lots of TV and doesn't exercise, then that child will become overweight regardless of where he or she started out on the growth chart as a young child," she says.
Kathleen Craven's son was in the 5th to 15th percentile for years, and even dropped off the chart for a couple of years. The Boise, Idaho, resident recalls being concerned as a new parent that he wasn't growing, and that he'd be teased his whole life for being short. He's now 5 feet, 11 inches and doing fine after a growth spurt his junior year in high school.
"As the mother of four children, I think parents need to realize that children grow at their own rate, and being 'too small' or 'too big' is often a temporary state for most kids," says Craven, whose pediatrician has much the same attitude as she does.
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