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Is The Weight Of 6 Kgs Normal For A 3 Month Old Baby?
Question: My baby's weight gain has not been consistent for last three weeks.the first week she gained 100 gms ,the second week she gained 300 gms and again this week it has been 100 gms. However in the past it has never been like this .her weight has been consistent and has gained between 170gms to 200 gms every week. she has gerd 3 grade.also for the past few days she passes motion during feeding and the number of motions ranges between 4-5.she is on domstal suspension 2 ml thrice daily and rantac syrup 0.4 ml twice daily.she is 3 months 8 days old and weighs 6 kgs.should I worry about her weight gain pattern and her motions.she is exclusively on breastfeeds.
Brief Answer:
Weight gain seems to be proper. You need not worry about occasional dips
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.
I have carefully gone through the details provided by you.
Although the birth weight was essential to comment upon, I can say that 6 kg for a 3 month old baby is a good weight and that can only be reached if weight gain is proper. Normally speaking, the birth weight of a baby is expected to double by 5 months of age and triple by 10-12 months of age. It seems that your baby is past the first milestone (or at least almost passed) in a time period less than 5 months. So you need not be concerned. Moreover, if the child is breast fed exclusively, there is nothing to worry about as it is the best possible feed for your baby.
Let me mention that weight gain need not always be linear. A weight gain of 10-30 g per day is considered normal. But I do not think that you need to take weight every week as irrespective of the weight gain, all you need to do is to continue exclusive breast feeding. Please note that the composition of the breast milk changes as per the demand of the baby and that would automatically take care of the situation in case the baby is not gaining weight adequately.
Moreover, there is a phenomenon called gastrocolic reflex due to which the child may pass stool after each feed. You need not worry if the child passes stool 10 times a day or once in 10 days as both of these are normal for a child of this age. Adequacy of the feeds would be evident if the frequency of passage of urine is more than 6 times over a period of 24 hours. If not, all you need to do is to increase the amount of breast feeding.
For reflux, rather than giving domstal and rantac, I would simply prefer proper burping. If you hold the baby erect for about 20 mins after each feed, I think that the problem would be dealt with without any medicine.
Hope that helps.
If you found my answer helpful, please close the thread with a positive review and a 5 star rating.
Regards
Dr. Diptanshu Das
Weight gain seems to be proper. You need not worry about occasional dips
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.
I have carefully gone through the details provided by you.
Although the birth weight was essential to comment upon, I can say that 6 kg for a 3 month old baby is a good weight and that can only be reached if weight gain is proper. Normally speaking, the birth weight of a baby is expected to double by 5 months of age and triple by 10-12 months of age. It seems that your baby is past the first milestone (or at least almost passed) in a time period less than 5 months. So you need not be concerned. Moreover, if the child is breast fed exclusively, there is nothing to worry about as it is the best possible feed for your baby.
Let me mention that weight gain need not always be linear. A weight gain of 10-30 g per day is considered normal. But I do not think that you need to take weight every week as irrespective of the weight gain, all you need to do is to continue exclusive breast feeding. Please note that the composition of the breast milk changes as per the demand of the baby and that would automatically take care of the situation in case the baby is not gaining weight adequately.
Moreover, there is a phenomenon called gastrocolic reflex due to which the child may pass stool after each feed. You need not worry if the child passes stool 10 times a day or once in 10 days as both of these are normal for a child of this age. Adequacy of the feeds would be evident if the frequency of passage of urine is more than 6 times over a period of 24 hours. If not, all you need to do is to increase the amount of breast feeding.
For reflux, rather than giving domstal and rantac, I would simply prefer proper burping. If you hold the baby erect for about 20 mins after each feed, I think that the problem would be dealt with without any medicine.
Hope that helps.
If you found my answer helpful, please close the thread with a positive review and a 5 star rating.
Regards
Dr. Diptanshu Das
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Ashwin Bhandari
Answered by
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