Note: We had a slight technical difficulty and realized this blog accidentally posted last week. Our intent was for it to run today, so if you’ve read it, we’re sorry!! Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! Time is running out….
You know those little pieces of paper the pediatrician gives you every time you take your child in for a wellness check up? The ones that have weight, height, head circumference, and percentiles that your child falls into? Well hello, I’m Allison and I’m addicted to my baby’s percentiles.
When I was pregnant with Lincoln I stayed fairly small. My doctor told me to expect a smaller baby, because of how my stomach was measuring. Come July, I delivered a week early a healthy 6 lb 2 oz, 19 1/4 inch long baby boy. At the time, I wasn’t really concerned with his size. Of course I wanted to produce a big strong man, but I was just thankful Lincoln came out small and didn’t give mommy any stretch marks. As soon as he was born though all of that changed!
With each doctor’s appointment I became more and more obsessed with Lincoln’s size. I looked forward to our weekly visits where I’d walk away with a piece of paper telling me what percentile Lincoln was in. And I became annoyed as he got older and our frequent trips to the doc stopped. Now we go every 6 months to find out his height and weight, which is like torture trying to guess how tall I think he is in the 6 month intervals. I use the Baby Center growth percentile calculator to guess where I think Lincoln’s at in size during the months we don’t have wellness visits.
You see, neither Wesley or I are tall people. We have tall genes in our family with my dad being 6’2, my sister 5’9, and his brother 6′, but I’m a measly 5’4 and Wesley is 5’10 and claims to be 5’11 with his boots on. Hell I’m 5’9 with heels! Anyway, we just want Lincoln to have a shot in the height department. Our pediatrician says that based on mom and dad’s height (us) Lincoln could be anywhere from 5’7 to 5’11 and that we won’t be able to determine his adult height until he’s around 6 years old. I’m not really sure where my percentile obsession stems from and I’m sure if I had a girl, I wouldn’t care. But because I want my boy to be big and strong, I eagerly await for that piece of paper telling me where Lincoln falls in comparison to his peers. And don’t get me wrong here, I want him to be healthy and developing at the right speed more than I want him to be tall, but STILL!!!! Height matters too!!
At first I thought I was the only loony mom, but then I heard my friends talking about percentiles and noticed other friends posting their baby’s sizes on social networking sites and I realized, I’m not a crazy percentile freak after all! So for all you moms out there that tell me your kid’s percentiles and post their height and weight after every doctor appointment, THIS IS A TOTAL PI$$ING CONTEST FOR ME! I have one friend who posts updates with her son’s size (Yes, Gina, I’m talking about you) and Lincoln’s older so I’ll go back and look at his paper to see where he was at when he was 6 months/9 months/etc. And yes, I save every little paper and they are all glued in his baby book. And yes, my baby is bigger than her baby…HA! I told you, I’m obsessed! Better to be obsessed about my child’s height percentiles than shoes…for my husband’s sake at least.
So for anyone who is a psycho lunatic about their child’s percentiles and wants to compare with me here, Lincoln just had his 18 month wellness visit. He’s 33 1/2 inches long, which puts him in the 75-90% and 23.7 lbs, which put him in the 25%. For now, he’s long and lean! Wesley and I joke that we’re just waiting for the height number to stay stagnant and our percentile to start going down. But for now we will hold onto the hope that Lincoln will be a 6′ lean pitcher for the Houston Astros. At the end of the day, there is nothing really scientific about growth percentiles and they are really just a tool for the doctor to make sure your child is in line with their growth, but I take them VERY serious and look forward to every wellness visit so I can make sure my baby is bigger than your baby! Nah nah nah nah naaaaaaahhhhhhh.
If you think it is bad now, just wait until you have more than one and you are comparing their percentiles. I mean, aren’t I doing coming totally and completely wrong if baby #2 isn’t growing on the exact same path as baby #1 (insert eye roll here)
Girl, I just laughed my ass off reading this. The only reason I started posting stats was bc that was the first thing people would ask me. Probably bc j’s head was so big, lol
I havent checked gavins growth chart since he was 18 months!! Lol. He will be 3 in august. He looks fine to me. I guess in my mind, that would be another thing to stress about and we dont need anymore stress 🙂 but I totally undersyand how obsessive it can become. I was obsessed with it last year for sure!
I love this Allison! Because Payton and I are both tall (6′ and 6’5″) I’m obsessed Eli’s numbers as well. He has been above the 95th percentile since he was born (height, weight, and head – thank the Lord I had to have a c-section) and I call him my little linebacker. His 18 month appointment is on Thursday, and you bet your butt I’m saving all of those papers with his numbers 🙂
Yes, Candace… you are another Facebook Mommy Friend who I consistently stalk to see how Lincoln compares 🙂 Although, I don’t think Lincoln will ever catch up to Eli’s size!! You’ve got me beat by 8 inches and your hubs has my hubs beat by 7! Keep us posted how his numbers look!!!
This was so cute Allison! Should I be worried that V is in the 5-10th percentile but her head is in the 50-75th?! Lol.
The curves or lines on growth charts are used to compare an individual baby’s growth against the growth patterns of a large number of babies. If your baby is at the 50th percentile, for example, that means that about half the babies his age are larger, and half smaller. By plotting the baby’s weight and height over several months, a pattern emerges. You can see if the baby is growing at a rate similar to the larger group, or growing more, or less, quickly. For example, a baby who is at the 75th percentile for a couple of visits, but then drops to the 25th percentile at the following visit, and a month later to the 10th percentile, may have a health problem of some kind, even though he is continuing to gain weight.
Growth charts can help both you and your health care provider follow your child as they grow. These charts may provide an early warning that your child has a medical problem.
Growth charts were developed from information gained by measuring and weighing thousands of children. From these numbers, the national average weight and height for each age and gender were established.
The lines or curves on growth charts tell how many other children in the United States weigh a certain amount at a certain age. For example, the weight on the 50th percentile line means that one half of the children in the United States weigh more than that number and one half of the children weigh less.
you can see that a 2-year-old boy who is 30 pounds is at the 75th percentile for his weight, meaning he weighs more than about 75 percent of boys his age, and less than 25 percent of other 2-year-old boys.
Finding a child’s percentile is a little harder if the curve doesn’t actually pass through the spot where age and weight come together. For example, if the boy in the example weighed 31 pounds you would use all of the same steps but also have to imagine a curve that is somewhere between the 75th and 90th percentiles, figuring that he was at about the 80th to 85th percentile.
If your child is above the 95th or below the 5th percentile, then you will not be able to find an exact percentile, except to say that he is above or below the growth chart, but you can use the same steps to plot your child’s height and body mass index.