How much should a child gain in 1 month. Weight gain in breastfed newborns. How to determine if a baby has a normal weight or not

Newborn (the first month of a child's life) is one of the most critical periods in the development of a baby. But now the baby is one month old, the neonatal period is over. What should a child be able to do at this age, what should he do and what indicators indicate the correct development?

What should a newborn baby be able to do in the first month of life?

A child in 1 month of life acquires the first and most important skills. What should such a small baby be able to do? For example, breastfeeding correctly - if a baby has difficulty latch-on, he will not be able to suckle effectively and gain weight. Therefore, if your baby has gained too little in the first month, check the correct attachment to the breast.

Also, by the end of the first month, the newborn should be able to focus on the faces of people. In addition, by the end of the first month, the child begins to learn to distinguish colors, can look at a picture with a simple and bright image for a long time. The baby still knows how to look at a short distance, however, mothers are advised to dress in bright clothes so that the baby notices it and begins to “be interested” in a new bright color.

How much does a 1 month old baby sleep?

How should a baby sleep at the age of about a month? Of course, the first months of a child's life are life in a dream. A healthy newborn baby can sleep up to 18 hours a day, waking up only to feed. Waking up, he can stay awake for 10-60 minutes, and then falls asleep again.

There is no set schedule for how a baby should sleep at this tender age. But if your child screams all day long and does not want to fall asleep in any way, show the baby to a neurologist, perhaps the cause of this behavior will be a birth injury or problems that arose during the mother's pregnancy.

Gradually, after feeding, the baby begins to increase the time of wakefulness. By the end of the first month, the time the child should be awake increases - now it is from an hour to two.

How much should a baby eat at 1 month of age

No one can tell you exactly how much you should eat at each feeding. month old baby. When feeding on demand, he can suck out 50 ml once. milk, and after a short time - for example, 120 ml. For this reason, control weighings, which were previously used to understand whether the child is receiving enough milk, are not informative.

There is also no clear standard on how many times a day a child should eat and how long each feeding should be. All this is strictly individual. One baby can literally "not get off the chest", the second - quickly saturate and fall asleep. Do not try to maintain artificial pauses and feed every three hours, this often leads to underweight.

If the baby grows on an artificial mixture, then it is much easier to calculate how much he needs to eat:

• from one and a half to four months, the amount of food eaten should be 1/6 of the baby's weight
• divide this volume by 6 (number of feedings per day), and you will find out how much your child should eat "in one sitting"

How much should a baby weigh at 1 month?

One of the questions that worries young mothers the most is how much should a child gain in the first month of life and how much should he weigh? Lactation consultants believe that the minimum increase for a child during this period is 700 grams. If he scored 600, this is a reason to introduce supplementary food, and the smaller the increase, the more formula the child should receive along with breast milk. 100-300 grams or no increase is a reason for a careful examination of the baby in order to exclude serious diseases.

When a person is born, he seems very small and fragile. Its further growth depends on many factors. The weight of newborns increases weekly if the baby eats properly and has no pathologies. Most the best remedy in order for weight gain to be normal, and its development to be harmonious - mother's milk. It contains all the vitamins, micro and macro elements, amino acids necessary for growth. Such nutrition is not always available, since the mother may not have milk, or the child does not tolerate the lactose contained in it. The first 2-3 months are the most important for the formation of a healthy future for a small person. Newborn weight gain should be normal: no more, no less than the necessary criteria.

How much should a baby gain in the first month?

At birth, the weight of the child is 2.5-4.5 kilograms. Regardless of what the body weight was initially, the newborn should gain weight. The first month is the most important in this matter. Do not be afraid if the child loses about 350 grams in the first week - this is normal.

To determine whether a baby was born large, small or medium, you need to make a simple calculation. It is necessary to divide the body weight of the baby by his height. The resulting number less than 60 indicates that the baby is large, 70 is small, an intermediate value means medium.

In the first month, a newborn should gain about 1.5 kilograms. But 500 grams is also not a pathology and is normal. For a large baby, the 1st month can bring 2 kilograms. All rules are relative. Only a specialist during the examination can say with certainty whether the desired weight has been gained. And parents should clearly control the process of growth and development of the newborn.

Newborn weight loss - causes

In the 1st month, weight loss can be observed. There are some reasons for this.

• Lack of nutrition;
• Changes in the composition of food due to the products used by the mother;
• Diseases of the oral cavity or ENT organs;
• A state of stress due to the environment;
• Problems with nervous system or gastrointestinal tract;
• Bad habits of the mother, in particular, smoking.

Each of these reasons can prevent a newborn from gaining due weight. To find out the reason, you need to see a doctor. This should be done as early as possible to avoid the development of rickets or other dangerous diseases.

How can a child get better?

The first year of a baby's life is associated with normal sleep and proper nutrition. Only if all the requirements are met will the desired weight be gained. Moms should know a few basic rules for feeding a baby.

• For newborns, you can not set a feeding schedule. They eat on demand.
• Weakened babies often fall asleep at the time of feeding, so it is necessary to ensure that they suckle.
• The nutrition of children of weak babies lasts longer in time: they must get to high-calorie milk.
• From the first days, one must learn to put the baby to the breast so that they can "get" their own food.

In addition, the mother of the baby should pay attention to the frequency and quality of his urination. A newborn can write up to 15 times a day, while the color of the urine should be light, and there should be almost no smell. In case of malnutrition, urine changes color to a darker one and acquires an unpleasant odor.

Mom needs to constantly monitor the emotional state of the newborn. If he is full, then the dream will be calm, and wakefulness will be joyful.

Table of weight gain for children up to a year

Every week of the first months of a baby's life is a guarantee of his healthy future. There is a standard formula for calculating normal weight gain for a baby. Initial weight + (800* for age). The permissible deviation from the resulting number should not exceed 10 percent.

Table of weight gain for children up to a year

At the initial stage, weight gain and height increase are more intense, and then everything goes into decline. Based on initial birth weight, one year old baby can weigh from 7 to 11 kilograms.

Raise your baby healthy and happy!

The appearance of a baby in the family is an important and serious event in the life of any parent, which brings with it a lot of positive emotions. But at the same time, many worries and anxieties arise, and with them questions: how to care, how to feed, when to start educating, how to bathe, how much to eat, etc.

Many questions arise in the first month of a baby’s life, and especially many of these “how much?”, “How?”, “When?” and why?" appears in the parents of the firstborn.

The first data that we are told at the birth of a baby is his gender, height and weight. The sex of the child is already for life, but the height and weight - these figures will change. The issue of growth increase will be relevant until a certain moment until the child is fully grown (final growth usually stops by age 25). But the question of body weight of some will worry all their lives. Will the child itself worry about his weight - this is still in the distant future, but on this stage- his first month of life, and the question "how much should a child weigh at 1 month?" worries his parents.

The normal weight of the baby is one of the main indicators of the health of the child for most parents. And this is right, since the lack of body weight or its excess negatively affects not only the correct physical development of the baby, but also the development of his mental functions.

How much do newborns weigh?

If your baby was born with a body weight of 2.5 to 4.5 kg, then this is considered the norm today. The weight of a newborn depends on several factors:

• heredity (if one of the parents was born large, then their child can also be born large);
• mother's nutrition during pregnancy;
• the severity of the pregnancy;
• the number of conceived fetuses (if there is a brother or sister in one pregnancy, the weight of the child will be slightly lower than with the birth of only one baby).

It should be remembered that in the first five days after birth, all newborns lose in weight (from the initial indicator at the time of birth) from 170 to 350 grams. This is due to the physiology of newborns.

To determine which category (medium or large) your baby belongs to, you need to divide the weight of the newborn by his height - we get a number with a range from 60 to 70. This indicator is considered average. If the number turned out to be more than 70, then the child's body weight is small for his height. If you got less than 60, then your little one is large.

How much should a child gain in the first month of life?

Weight gain in newborns of the first month of life occurs in different ways. Some of the children add less, some more.

An increase of 500 to 1200 grams in the first 4 weeks is considered the norm. If the baby has added less than the minimum number, then the reason should be found out as soon as possible.

Normal gain in the first month of life has great importance for the health of the baby. Lack of weight gain, as well as its bust, can sometimes adversely affect the development of crumbs. A child with a lack of weight gain may have problems with muscle tone, which in turn can lead to impaired physical development(rickets) and other health problems. However, do not panic about this, because the child can gain his own in the following months.

Weight gain in newborns is a purely individual indicator, and your pediatrician will tell you whether to sound the alarm about this.

We offer you a table of child weight gain by months, but keep in mind that these are average figures.

The norm of weight in children of the first six months

This table shows the weight gain in children during the first 6 months of their life. But at the same time, we should not forget that we are all individual in our development and our children are no exception. In one month, a child may gain at least (or even less than the minimum) in weight, and in the next month it may exceed the maximum. And it will be normal for him.

Weight gain is an indicator not only of how the baby eats, but also a reflection of its activity, as well as a genetic predisposition. So, for example, a baby of miniature parents, by virtue of its constitution, may not reach the established minimum norm, and a child of large parents may gain weight above the upper limit.

When is a child's weight a cause for concern?

If the weight gain of the child compared to the previous month turned out to be insignificant, remained the same or even decreased, then this is a cause for concern. The reason for this may be an insufficient amount of milk from the mother or its insufficient nutritional value. When a baby is bottle fed, parents can see how much milk the baby is eating. At breastfeeding the volume eaten by the baby is difficult to determine.

If you have a baby scale, you can weigh your baby before and after feeding. The difference in indicators will show the amount of milk sucked by him. However, milk can be low-calorie (non-nutritious). This factor depends on the nutrition of the mother. In cases of low nutritional value of milk or its shortage, the doctor prescribes complementary foods with an adapted milk formula.

A child with poor appetite may not recover well. The reason for this may be poor health (colic). It is worth paying attention to the mother's nutrition (do not eat foods that affect the taste of milk or cause fermentation).

It also happens that the baby is gaining weight too quickly. Excessive gain may be associated with malnutrition of the mother - the abuse of carbohydrate foods makes breast milk high in calories. This, in turn, can lead to metabolic disorders in infants and the risk of disease. diabetes. In this case, the doctor may prescribe a sugar test; advise on how to reduce the weight of the baby; will tell you what diet a nursing mother should follow so that in the future such a problem does not arise. The easiest way to reduce baby weight is to increase the interval between feedings.

If a one-month-old baby is underweight

Knowing how much the baby should gain in weight in the first month, you can understand whether the amount of food consumed is enough for him.

When breastfeeding, you need to monitor the correct feeding of the baby: whether he captures the breast correctly. You should pay attention to the amount of milk in the mother. With a small amount of it, you can feed the child not from one breast, but from both (in turn): if you fed him last time from the right, and fed him from the left, then at the next feeding, attach the child first to the left, and feed from the right. If the mother has enough milk, but the baby’s appetite is poor and he eats little, then you can shorten the intervals between feedings or apply crumbs on demand.

When the baby is on artificial feeding, then the mixture should be prepared according to the instructions and given in the amount he needs.

If the baby does not eat well (poor appetite), then there are a number of reasons for this:

• taste breast milk mothers (it depends on what mother eats, whether she smokes);
• colic (up to 3 months of age, almost all babies suffer from this problem);
• short frenulum of the tongue;
• thrush of the oral mucosa;
• stuffy nose;
• ear pain;
• headaches (in weather-dependent children);
• bad mood (lack of attention, care and warmth, mother's nervousness and fatigue, overwork).

If a month old baby is overweight

Cause overweight may be overeating. Mom, at every request, puts the baby to her breast (or gives a bottle), while the baby is just hot - and he wants to drink.

Every mother needs to know how much a child should weigh in the first (second, third ....) month - first of all for own peace of mind. The calm state of the mother is important when communicating with the baby, because the children are very sensitive. If, for some reason, your baby has gained weight less or more than normal, then, first of all, you need to remember that each child develops according to an individual plan, and above we have already listed the factors that affect his weight gain. If, nevertheless, you are still worried about this, then seek the advice of an experienced pediatrician.

Health to you and your little ones!

The weight of a newborn is one of the most important indicators of his health. If the baby is full-term, but weighs less than 2.8 kg, they say that he lacked nutrients in utero. But if doctors do not notice health problems, everything is in the hands of the mother. Feeding the baby with breast milk or artificial formula is her task.

The weight of newborns in the first days of life decreases. Excess fluid comes out of the body, weight is lost and with the passage of the original feces - meconium. And mommy in the first 3-5 days after giving birth has only colostrum, it is very small, enough only to satisfy her hunger, but not to make fat reserves. Normal weight indicators are reduced to 10%. That is, if a child was born weighing 4 kg, after 3 days he can weigh 3.6 kg. But by the time of discharge from the hospital, weight gain is already beginning in breastfed newborns, mommy has a lot of breast milk. Subject to active breast sucking by the child. If the weight continues to decrease with active breast sucking, this is a reason for examining the child. Perhaps there are problems with digestive system or there is a congenital lactase deficiency. With the second reason, the baby often has green stools, severe gas formation, and a stomach ache during feedings.

Breastfed and formula-fed newborns gain weight from 500 grams per month. The norm is considered - from 600 grams and up to about 1.5 kg. Babies usually gain weight unevenly. For example, in the first month they can become heavier by 1.5 kg, and in the second by 500-600 grams. It is important that the trend of weight growth is maintained, and the overall increase fits into the normal. For example, it is believed that by 6 months, babies should gain the same weight with which they were born. For example, a child born 3.5 kg should weigh at least 7 kg.

In addition to the weight of honey. workers in children's clinics measure the size of the chest, head, height of the child. It must develop harmoniously. Physical and mental skills should be age appropriate. It often happens, especially in children closer to the age of one year, that the weight is slightly behind the norm, and the child himself is active and developed by age. Then doctors tend to consider this a variant of the norm, individual feature. Perhaps the child just has a very active metabolism, and he himself is mobile, does not sit still, quickly spends the calories received with food.

Excessive newborn weight gain- a sign of overeating. It often happens in babies who are breastfed without any regimen and in artificial people who are offered too large volumes of the mixture or they cook it incorrectly (make it too saturated). To see what normal weight gain in newborns by months can be expected - see the table. If your child is gaining weight by leaps and bounds, normalize his diet.

1. If the baby suckles constantly, try to introduce at least small intervals between feedings. Although they say that you can’t overeat with breast milk, in practice it turns out that it’s very possible. And okay, weight, in children who eat too much, atopic dermatitis (diathesis) is more common, the stomach hurts more often, and infant colic lasts longer.

2. If the baby gains weight well on artificial feeding, you need to check with the pediatrician again about the norms for using the mixture per day. Your baby is probably just overeating.

What to do with poor weight gain and approximate norms

Feed tighter! This is the most correct answer to the question. If your baby is a little behind in weight while being exclusively breastfed, do not rush to introduce formula into his diet. This will reduce the amount of milk. Often such a lack of weight occurs in very young children. The weight of a newborn in the first month after birth does not grow well, if he likes to sleep, during feedings he dozes almost all the time, sucks inefficiently. Due to lazy suckling, the mother's milk production is reduced. Hunger in a child, of course, wakes up, but usually in the late afternoon, when mommy has almost no milk left in her chest. At least one that can be easily obtained, without active sucking.
The lack of weight in a baby of such a plan can be explained and “treated” by frequent attachments to the chest and attempts to wake the baby for feeding. To wake the baby, you can ventilate the room, turn on the TV, bathe, etc. Weight gain in premature babies for this reason is often insufficient. The child is small and lethargic. However, large babies born weighing 4 kg or more often like to sleep and are too lazy to suck.

If a mother wants to keep breastfeeding, it is necessary, without sparing herself, to keep the baby at her breast almost all day long. Immediately after waking up, breastfeed, do not allow to suck water from a bottle and a pacifier, only the breast. After about a week the situation is resolved. And if all is well, you can make the intervals between feedings a little longer, but no more than 3 hours during the day and 6 hours at night.

If the rate of weight gain in breastfed children cannot be achieved, for example, the mother has completely flat nipples, and the child does not want to suck milk through silicone pads, or frequent stresses, it is necessary to supplement with milk formula. Give it should be in feeding, when the child is definitely not full. Usually in the evening. Ideally, you can buy or rent an electronic baby scale and use it to weigh your baby for a couple of days before and after each feeding. Thus, it will be possible to estimate the amount of milk drunk, and it will become clear how much mixture should be given to the child and at what time of day. Just keep in mind that such supplements often lead to a decrease in HB and its complete replacement with artificial feeding.

In order to prevent the rapid end of breastfeeding and the child's refusal to breastfeed, one must not abandon attempts to increase lactation. Continue to breastfeed frequently, try different lactagons, drink more fluids, and be less nervous. When the level of how much a baby should normally add when breastfeeding is reached and even exceeded, it's time to gradually reduce supplementary feeding with a mixture. Only gradually. Many women have been able to transition from mixed feeding back to breastfeeding. The main desire. If something does not work out, you need to contact a breastfeeding consultant. It is in any more or less large city.
Does the rate of weight gain depend on the sex of the child? Hardly ever. Weight gain in newborn boys is about the same as in girls, with the same amount of food. A gap of literally half a kilogram is possible. But the growth of boys by the year, indeed, turns out to be a little more than that of little ladies. Girls gain weight and height faster than boys only closer to puberty.

In addition to nutrition, the complexion of the child depends on:

• heredity;
• course of the mother's pregnancy.

On average, the weight of children in the first three months of life increases by 750 grams (per month). From 3 to 6 months - by 700 grams. From 7 to 9 months - 550 grams per month. From 9 to 12 months - by 350 grams.

Table of the rate of weight gain for newborns from 0 to a year by months:

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The weight and height of a newborn is important information that parents will tell doctors more than once when examining a child. And then, baby, is an informative source about the health of the baby during the first 12 months of life. Especially young parents are concerned about the following: how much a child should gain in the first month and what to do if the weight does not fit into the norm.

How much should a newborn weigh

To date, the average indicators of newly born babies are from 2.5 kilograms to 4.5. depends primarily on heredity (if one of the parents was born large, then most likely the child will be like that), the mother’s nutrition while waiting for a miracle and the severity of the pregnancy. In premature babies or in the case of multiple pregnancies, the baby's body weight may be below normal, but the situation will be normal if the lack of weight is small and the newborn is gaining weight. We must not forget that in the first 5 days the weight of the baby will decrease by an average of 170-350 g. This is due to the physiology of newborns. If you divide the weight by the height of the newborn, you can understand whether the baby belongs to medium-weight or large children. Is the resulting number in the range of 60-70? Medium weight baby. More than 70 - the weight is small for his height. Less than 60 - the baby is large.

How much should a child gain in weight in the first month of life

According to the norms, babies gain an average of 500 - 1200 g in the first 4 weeks. But some children gain more or, conversely, less. If the weight has increased even slightly less than the lower threshold, you need to immediately find out the reason. Indeed, at this stage, weight is of great importance for the health of the baby. A small weight, like a large one, sometimes negatively affects the body of the crumbs. But this does not mean that among healthy children there are no those who would gain even up to 2 kg at the beginning of their lives. A baby with a small weight gain may also have problems with muscle tone, which will adversely affect the development of physical skills, lead to the development of rickets and a host of other problems. But, on the other hand, the child may catch up in the following months. Everything here is purely individual. And without an experienced, reputable specialist, it is difficult to understand whether it is necessary to sound the alarm.

What causes weight loss

Knowing for the first month, you can understand the following:

• Is the amount of food that he receives enough for the child. If the baby eats mother's milk, you need to double-check whether he captures the breast correctly and whether there is really enough milk. It is necessary to give the breast at the first request of the baby, because if there is not enough milk, he will have nowhere to get calories from in order to add weight. If the baby is receiving formula instead of breast milk, prepare the food according to the instructions and give the right amount.
• The infant is not eating well. This can happen for a number of reasons, for example, little or too much milk, the taste of milk has changed due to the food eaten by the mother, the baby, colic (all newborns suffer from colic in the first 3 months), headaches in weather-dependent children, crumb disease (thrush on the oral mucosa, pain in the ears, stuffy nose), teething, bad mood, small child.
• Unfavorable atmosphere in the family, which led to the stress of mother and baby. Lack of attention and care from the mother due to the many things she does around the house. Her exhaustion from endless work. And the baby does not receive warmth and worries, cries. But do not forget how much a child should gain in the first month. Some things can be entrusted to households or postponed and taken care of by a baby.
• Some health problems. These can be diseases of the nervous system of the baby, the gastrointestinal tract, rickets. When in doubt, immediately consult a pediatrician without delay.
• Smoking of a nursing mother affects weight loss in a newborn.

How to determine if a baby has a normal weight or not

So, we already know how much a child should gain in the first month. But kids are all different. There is a formula for calculating the average weight of a baby. To do this, you need to take the weight of the child at birth and add it to the number 800 times the age in months. Get the average weight that the baby can have. Deviations of 10% are allowed. If the deviations are more than normal, do not worry ahead of time. First, consult with a good pediatrician, watch the baby. Sometimes the reason for deviations lies on the surface. When overweight, the baby may overeat. He is hot, he asks for a drink, but it seems that he is hungry. The reasons for the lack of weight are described above. By identifying why body weight is not normal, you can eliminate the cause of this and help the baby.

Trust but check

But in general, better opinion pediatricians about weight gain to double-check, primarily for their own reassurance. The calm state of the mother is very important when communicating with him, as he feels it. Doctors are also different. An experienced person will say one thing, but a young specialist can make many diagnoses based on textbooks. Which will make your head spin. It is better to go to another doctor and consult if, knowing how much the child should gain in the first month, you see that the baby is cheerful and healthy, and the district pediatrician makes incomprehensible diagnoses, frightening with the consequences. Each child is individual and develops in their own way. So look for a doctor who understands this. After all, there are doctors experienced, friendly and adequate at the same time. It is good if the kids and their mothers have such doctors.

Every mother needs to know how much a baby should gain in the first month, but don't worry if your baby has deviated from the norm. A consultation with an experienced doctor will help you deal with the situation and adjust the daily routine of the crumbs so that the weight is right and the baby is healthy. After all, the development of the child ultimately depends on the body weight in the first months. Health to you and your little ones!