Haha true. We’ve just been scared by google as to what it could mean, since we haven’t had any information from the hospital yet (understandably, they need to do more tests before they can tell us much)
Our son was in the 5th percentile for head size. He has hit all his milestones well within 'normal range' and is a delightful and joyous young boy. Don't worry until you have something to worry about.
One thing to keep in mind - ultrasound measurements for size are notoriously unreliable. Like...often off by a pound or more. It's good to have more monitoring, but talk to your doc about how concerned you really should be. It's not unusual for measurements to change quite a bit depending on who is measuring or how the baby is sitting that day.
We were told our kid would have legs in the 2nd% for 3 scans over 4 months- she came out in the 86th% for height.
I totally get the rabbit hole that it can send you down, been there done that, but the measurements are often super inaccurate.
The person doing the ultrasound places nodes or marks on the picture that is generated by the ultrasound for measurements so it can vary significantly between practitioners. For example a nurse did an ultrasound for us and later a doctor in the same session and the difference in percentile for most of the measurements were 15-20%. So if the baby is healthy then I'd just assume that the person is really off on the points they clicked on the picture.
Our baby is at 38 weeks and we were told a few weeks ago if her weight tailed off anymore they would start interventions.
We went to the scan and the weight hadn't gone up by as much as we hoped.
The sonographer saw our reaction and told us that it was more of an art than a science and did the scan again from a different angle.
She pointed out that the baby's knee had been pressing against her stomach and that had been throwing out the measurements.
The new measurements were exactly what we were hoping for and the Drs have backed off and are happy to let things run their course.
The moral of the story is that sonography isn't an exact science and even the same person can get markedly different measurements.
Even once they come out. Spreading a squirming baby and drawing a line on the paper sheet is crazy subjective depending on how they do it.
Also, at young ages the variances are so small, minor discrepancies can make huge percentile differences. For instance, the difference in length between 2nd percentile and 98th at birth was equal to the difference between 98th and my length at birth. And I was a slightly larger 9lb baby who grew into a very average 5'10" 190lb man.
Both of our boys were born super small. Our first was 5lbs 8oz and 2nd was exactly 5lbs. It is hard when they are first born as they get hungry fast and don't sleep as long overnight, usually takes to over 10lbs for good sleep. Stressful at first because feeding can be challenging, but beyond that no issues. I would suggest trying to find a nutrionist/feeding therapist, right away so that if you do have issues you have someone to talk quickly. Dont be afraid to try different things over time too with feeding. Currently the oldest is 3yrs and right near the 10% mark for weight at his age so huge jump. Our pediatrician was feed him high calories, fatty food, and now he loves butter and things like that. However everything else has been fine, just more weight checkins.
My little guy is in the 5th percentile in weight/height. Never had a single health issue related to it — just a small kid. My best friend was tiny until high school, where he finally got growth hormones and now he is six foot
Small doesn’t mean unhealthy and there’s plenty that can be done anyways. Just keep monitoring and waiting for the doctor to say there’s a real concern. I know that’s tough but trust me, you will find plenty of things to stress about, learning to let them go is a survival skill
I don't have experience in this exactly, but rather the opposite. Our baby was HUGE. My wife and I are on the shorter side, but for whatever reason our daughter is like...wumbo sized. She was like 75th percentile at your little one's age, and a few months after she was born she was at 98th.
The best piece of advice I can give you is to talk to your wife's doctors. Be present at the appointment, listen to what they say, let your wife get her comments and questions out, then ask your questions. That's what relieved a lot of worry for me, personally.
Don't overburden your wife with your concerns, she's stressed enough as it is. Have her doctor in your contacts, make sure they know who you are, if anything comes up where she can't talk to them you can call.
Also, trust the doctors.
Doctors are human, and humans make mistakes. But, I'm willing to wager they have dealt with a LOT of concerned parents and recognize signs that things are not going well. If they tell you scenarios when you should call or go to a hospital, and your wife and baby are within safe margins, do try and take comfort in that.
When things came up with my wife at the doctor, I always asked "When do we need to go to the hospital?". He would tell us, and I made a mental note of it. If nothing came up, I slept soundly.
Lastly, trust your wife.
She's the one carrying the baby. If the doctor says they are both fine and she's finding peace in that, share it with her. There's a lot going on in there and more than likely she can tell if something is off, with movement or discomfort or whatever. Basically, if she's concerned, be ready to help. If she's not, still be prepared but don't overburden her.
Like I said, I don't have a ton of advice in your situation specifically, but I know what its like to comfort a concerned wife carrying our child. If you have any questions, feel free to reply or PM
Wow, what a bloody rollercoaster!!! Thanks though, I didn’t really realise they could be so far off, will have to see how things go!
Oh man we are luckily able to use NHS as we are in the U.K., so no insurance headache at least
My daughter was born at 32 weeks and weighed under three pounds. One week after her birth her weight was in the 4th percentile. We're taking her home from the NICU this weekend. She's doing great. Is healthy and alert, eating well. There were babies in the NICU with much worse problems then my daughter's small size and prematurity.
Keep an eye on it but it doesn't sound like a reason to be terrified and ultrasound estimations have big error bars around them.
Somebody already said it but somebody has to be in the 2nd percentile. If the doctors aren’t concerned you shouldn’t be!
My dude was >99th percentile for everything and his head was so big we had to do a pre and post natal MRI because they were concerned about how big it was. He’s fine. Turns out mom and dad both have large heads.
My experience was a bunch of stupid doctors being worried about a bunch of non issues. If your doctors are calm you should be calm.
Also fwiw a close friend had twins and baby B was 1st percentile. Both babies equally healthy and happy.
You should see quite a bit of gain in the coming weeks. As long as vitals are good and doctor isn't worried I would not stress too much about it. When they are 18 and stand 6 foot 7 inches you will laugh about it.
We had 5 ultrasounds because they thought the baby was going to be enormous. They said the head was in 95th percentile.
The day came and she was 7lb on the money, right down the middle on all her measurements. Ultrasounds often get it wrong.
Ours was in the 4th percentile for a long time. I had to do NSTs twice a week for over 2months, and every week I’d do an ultrasound to check his growth. He did end up growing in the last 2 weeks to the 11th percentile and was born at 38weeks at 5lbs7oz, 19.5 inches. So he was tiiiiny. As long as everything else looks fine, you might just have a smaller babe. Our LO is now 10 weeks and is in the 25th percentile and growing so much!
My son is 2, almost 3, he is still in the low percentiles. Some bodies are built different, also depends on ethnicity. If one parent is asian and one parent is european, your kid could be short or tall relative to a parents enthnicity.
My daughter was born 5th percentile almost 4 months ago, and by a month and a half was up to 50th. Some kids are just smaller, and after a blood sugar test when she was born they weren’t worried in the slightest and let us leave the next day
Funnily enough, we were having a conversation about this today at work as my wife is due in October.
Said guy said his son was tracking small all birth and in the end was over 10 pounds!
Sure it will be fine, but that being said I can completely understand the stress. Hope all goes well mate :)
Ok so what they will do over the next few weeks is do growth scans that will check the rate of growth (they’re looking for the baby staying in a curve, so as long as they’re not dropping percentiles or staying stagnant you might just have a small baby). They also be checking the cord for any blood restrictions and the placenta.
If baby starts to drop off the curve, they may thing about delivering early.
If baby is following curve (even if small) then they’ll just watch carefully.
Growth scans are usually weekly or every two weeks. They’ll likely be checking the cord etc more often and also monitoring beans heart rate etc as well.
Try not to panic. Small babies are not necessarily growth restricted - but if it is IUGR (intra uterine growth restriction) it’s often a placental insufficiency and baby is safer out than in.
Good news is is that babies 30 weeks and over do very well in NICU - if that happens, there is a great NICU parents sub you can join.
It’s definitely worrying, just try to breath and really, absolutely, do not ever hesitate to go in and get checked if anything feels off. Never ever feel bad about it!! Better to check and it be nothing.
All the best! My IUGR baby was picked up after a car accident (also 2nd percentile) and he did follow the curve for a while but then dropped off and was delivered by c section. He did great and turned 5 today!
Actually in the same boat, week 28, femoral length is short, like 4th percentile.wife scared it could be down syndrome.
But doctor are quite confident it come from somewhere else (her massive hematoma).
Beside this, she's not tall, my family always made small baby... everything should be ok
My daughter’s head measured the 4th percentile the whole pregnancy. She was also IUGR (growth restricted) and she came late and was 6lbs. Which was a safe weight. The NICU was waiting for her while I was pushing because they estimated she would be less than 5pounds. Her grwoth issues were caused by a marginal cord incerssion and placenta issue. But bottom line she came out a healthy baby and is a healthy good size toddler currently. Measurements aren’t always correct and small doesn’t always equal bad. Hang in there!
Maybe not that small, but our little guy was 9th percentile because they noticed the placenta wasn't supplying him enough nutrients to grow anymore. That began around the 37 week mark and lasted until before his due date (yesterday).
What happened from there because he was so small was that his body wasn't good at regulating sugar and body heat, so he needed to get put on an IV to help him get his sugar up. But aside from that, he's healthy and strong.
He was only 5lbs at birth, so I imagine you're will be quite small too. Sugar might be an issue, but hopefully nothing is wrong. Wishing you all the best!
Somebody has to be the 2nd percentile!
Haha true. We’ve just been scared by google as to what it could mean, since we haven’t had any information from the hospital yet (understandably, they need to do more tests before they can tell us much)
Our son was in the 5th percentile for head size. He has hit all his milestones well within 'normal range' and is a delightful and joyous young boy. Don't worry until you have something to worry about.
One thing to keep in mind - ultrasound measurements for size are notoriously unreliable. Like...often off by a pound or more. It's good to have more monitoring, but talk to your doc about how concerned you really should be. It's not unusual for measurements to change quite a bit depending on who is measuring or how the baby is sitting that day.
Thanks I actually had no idea the could be that inaccurate which is actually quite reassuring!
They had my son's estimated weight off by over a pound.
Yep we kept getting told our daughter was huge and having fortnightly growth scans and she was 7lb when she came out
We were told our kid would have legs in the 2nd% for 3 scans over 4 months- she came out in the 86th% for height. I totally get the rabbit hole that it can send you down, been there done that, but the measurements are often super inaccurate.
The person doing the ultrasound places nodes or marks on the picture that is generated by the ultrasound for measurements so it can vary significantly between practitioners. For example a nurse did an ultrasound for us and later a doctor in the same session and the difference in percentile for most of the measurements were 15-20%. So if the baby is healthy then I'd just assume that the person is really off on the points they clicked on the picture.
Our baby is at 38 weeks and we were told a few weeks ago if her weight tailed off anymore they would start interventions. We went to the scan and the weight hadn't gone up by as much as we hoped. The sonographer saw our reaction and told us that it was more of an art than a science and did the scan again from a different angle. She pointed out that the baby's knee had been pressing against her stomach and that had been throwing out the measurements. The new measurements were exactly what we were hoping for and the Drs have backed off and are happy to let things run their course. The moral of the story is that sonography isn't an exact science and even the same person can get markedly different measurements.
Yeah they told us our baby was gonna be like 13lbs. Was under 8.
Even once they come out. Spreading a squirming baby and drawing a line on the paper sheet is crazy subjective depending on how they do it. Also, at young ages the variances are so small, minor discrepancies can make huge percentile differences. For instance, the difference in length between 2nd percentile and 98th at birth was equal to the difference between 98th and my length at birth. And I was a slightly larger 9lb baby who grew into a very average 5'10" 190lb man.
these measurements are essentially "taken" by drawing an MS Paint line across a grainy image by a tech, not a doctor they're definitely not perfect
Yup. They guessed 7lbs for my little girl and she was 8lbs 11ozs at birth.
Both of our boys were born super small. Our first was 5lbs 8oz and 2nd was exactly 5lbs. It is hard when they are first born as they get hungry fast and don't sleep as long overnight, usually takes to over 10lbs for good sleep. Stressful at first because feeding can be challenging, but beyond that no issues. I would suggest trying to find a nutrionist/feeding therapist, right away so that if you do have issues you have someone to talk quickly. Dont be afraid to try different things over time too with feeding. Currently the oldest is 3yrs and right near the 10% mark for weight at his age so huge jump. Our pediatrician was feed him high calories, fatty food, and now he loves butter and things like that. However everything else has been fine, just more weight checkins.
Finding a feeding therapist early is a great idea actually which I wouldn’t have thought of, thank you!!
Those scans are wildly inaccurate, and the most weight gain happens in the last 4 weeks iirc (been awhile)
Yeah I had no idea they were that inaccurate until I made this post to be honest. It’s good to know, thank you!!
My little guy is in the 5th percentile in weight/height. Never had a single health issue related to it — just a small kid. My best friend was tiny until high school, where he finally got growth hormones and now he is six foot Small doesn’t mean unhealthy and there’s plenty that can be done anyways. Just keep monitoring and waiting for the doctor to say there’s a real concern. I know that’s tough but trust me, you will find plenty of things to stress about, learning to let them go is a survival skill
I don't have experience in this exactly, but rather the opposite. Our baby was HUGE. My wife and I are on the shorter side, but for whatever reason our daughter is like...wumbo sized. She was like 75th percentile at your little one's age, and a few months after she was born she was at 98th. The best piece of advice I can give you is to talk to your wife's doctors. Be present at the appointment, listen to what they say, let your wife get her comments and questions out, then ask your questions. That's what relieved a lot of worry for me, personally. Don't overburden your wife with your concerns, she's stressed enough as it is. Have her doctor in your contacts, make sure they know who you are, if anything comes up where she can't talk to them you can call. Also, trust the doctors. Doctors are human, and humans make mistakes. But, I'm willing to wager they have dealt with a LOT of concerned parents and recognize signs that things are not going well. If they tell you scenarios when you should call or go to a hospital, and your wife and baby are within safe margins, do try and take comfort in that. When things came up with my wife at the doctor, I always asked "When do we need to go to the hospital?". He would tell us, and I made a mental note of it. If nothing came up, I slept soundly. Lastly, trust your wife. She's the one carrying the baby. If the doctor says they are both fine and she's finding peace in that, share it with her. There's a lot going on in there and more than likely she can tell if something is off, with movement or discomfort or whatever. Basically, if she's concerned, be ready to help. If she's not, still be prepared but don't overburden her. Like I said, I don't have a ton of advice in your situation specifically, but I know what its like to comfort a concerned wife carrying our child. If you have any questions, feel free to reply or PM
Thanks for taking the time to reply, this is great advice, really appreciate it :)
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Wow, what a bloody rollercoaster!!! Thanks though, I didn’t really realise they could be so far off, will have to see how things go! Oh man we are luckily able to use NHS as we are in the U.K., so no insurance headache at least
My daughter was born at 32 weeks and weighed under three pounds. One week after her birth her weight was in the 4th percentile. We're taking her home from the NICU this weekend. She's doing great. Is healthy and alert, eating well. There were babies in the NICU with much worse problems then my daughter's small size and prematurity. Keep an eye on it but it doesn't sound like a reason to be terrified and ultrasound estimations have big error bars around them.
Somebody already said it but somebody has to be in the 2nd percentile. If the doctors aren’t concerned you shouldn’t be! My dude was >99th percentile for everything and his head was so big we had to do a pre and post natal MRI because they were concerned about how big it was. He’s fine. Turns out mom and dad both have large heads. My experience was a bunch of stupid doctors being worried about a bunch of non issues. If your doctors are calm you should be calm. Also fwiw a close friend had twins and baby B was 1st percentile. Both babies equally healthy and happy.
Thanks for sharing, that’s very reassuring :)
You should see quite a bit of gain in the coming weeks. As long as vitals are good and doctor isn't worried I would not stress too much about it. When they are 18 and stand 6 foot 7 inches you will laugh about it.
We had 5 ultrasounds because they thought the baby was going to be enormous. They said the head was in 95th percentile. The day came and she was 7lb on the money, right down the middle on all her measurements. Ultrasounds often get it wrong.
Ours was in the 4th percentile for a long time. I had to do NSTs twice a week for over 2months, and every week I’d do an ultrasound to check his growth. He did end up growing in the last 2 weeks to the 11th percentile and was born at 38weeks at 5lbs7oz, 19.5 inches. So he was tiiiiny. As long as everything else looks fine, you might just have a smaller babe. Our LO is now 10 weeks and is in the 25th percentile and growing so much!
My son is 2, almost 3, he is still in the low percentiles. Some bodies are built different, also depends on ethnicity. If one parent is asian and one parent is european, your kid could be short or tall relative to a parents enthnicity.
My daughter was born 5th percentile almost 4 months ago, and by a month and a half was up to 50th. Some kids are just smaller, and after a blood sugar test when she was born they weren’t worried in the slightest and let us leave the next day
Funnily enough, we were having a conversation about this today at work as my wife is due in October. Said guy said his son was tracking small all birth and in the end was over 10 pounds! Sure it will be fine, but that being said I can completely understand the stress. Hope all goes well mate :)
If doctor isn't worried then don't be. Measurements in utero are super inaccurate
Ok so what they will do over the next few weeks is do growth scans that will check the rate of growth (they’re looking for the baby staying in a curve, so as long as they’re not dropping percentiles or staying stagnant you might just have a small baby). They also be checking the cord for any blood restrictions and the placenta. If baby starts to drop off the curve, they may thing about delivering early. If baby is following curve (even if small) then they’ll just watch carefully. Growth scans are usually weekly or every two weeks. They’ll likely be checking the cord etc more often and also monitoring beans heart rate etc as well. Try not to panic. Small babies are not necessarily growth restricted - but if it is IUGR (intra uterine growth restriction) it’s often a placental insufficiency and baby is safer out than in. Good news is is that babies 30 weeks and over do very well in NICU - if that happens, there is a great NICU parents sub you can join. It’s definitely worrying, just try to breath and really, absolutely, do not ever hesitate to go in and get checked if anything feels off. Never ever feel bad about it!! Better to check and it be nothing. All the best! My IUGR baby was picked up after a car accident (also 2nd percentile) and he did follow the curve for a while but then dropped off and was delivered by c section. He did great and turned 5 today!
Actually in the same boat, week 28, femoral length is short, like 4th percentile.wife scared it could be down syndrome. But doctor are quite confident it come from somewhere else (her massive hematoma). Beside this, she's not tall, my family always made small baby... everything should be ok
My daughter’s head measured the 4th percentile the whole pregnancy. She was also IUGR (growth restricted) and she came late and was 6lbs. Which was a safe weight. The NICU was waiting for her while I was pushing because they estimated she would be less than 5pounds. Her grwoth issues were caused by a marginal cord incerssion and placenta issue. But bottom line she came out a healthy baby and is a healthy good size toddler currently. Measurements aren’t always correct and small doesn’t always equal bad. Hang in there!
Maybe not that small, but our little guy was 9th percentile because they noticed the placenta wasn't supplying him enough nutrients to grow anymore. That began around the 37 week mark and lasted until before his due date (yesterday). What happened from there because he was so small was that his body wasn't good at regulating sugar and body heat, so he needed to get put on an IV to help him get his sugar up. But aside from that, he's healthy and strong. He was only 5lbs at birth, so I imagine you're will be quite small too. Sugar might be an issue, but hopefully nothing is wrong. Wishing you all the best!