Naina's definitely small for her height. She's three months and three weeks yesterday and is 5.355 kg. She's also 60 cm tall. According to western medicine and statistics, she is in the lowest 10th percentile for weight but just in the 50th percentile for her height. Her maternal uncles and aunts are tall and thin, so I'm hoping she's taking after them. But here's the thing, those stupid graphs make people worried and unhappy, partly because they are incomprehensible to the average university graduate and partly because a lack of height or too much height or a lack of weight or too much weight makes parents thing they are doing the wrong thing by their baby.
I really find statistics and facts and what babies should be like annoying. Most books published are western centric, designed to make non-western mum and dad's feel like aliens on this planet. There can never ever be one (culturally biased) answer to something as universal as child rearing. No group, no ethnicity has a cultural mortgage over the truth of child raising, however, reading some books, one would be mistaken to think that only white people could ever raise normal healthy children.
One particular upsetting book from the Glen Eira council included a list of things never to do - never rock your baby to sleep, never feed your baby to sleep, never hold your baby to sleep etc. Babies fall asleep on the booby, that's one of the things they do! I reckon that there is a deep misanthropic streak in many midwives and maternal nurses and child experts who want babies to be clones. In the perverse sense of social engineering their pursuit is to create babies who all fit into boxes by the time they get to primary school.
Despite all the advice I have seen about not sleeping the baby in the bed with mum and dad, almost every one I have met (apart from my boss) admits to doing it a little bit or a lot and then say don't tell the white people. Social engineers. Some twit at work said to me that sleeping a baby in the bed raises children with bad habits. Yeah she'd know, because her babies never slept in the bed with mum and dad and go out and get pissed out of their skull every Friday and Saturday night. That's a healthy normal teenager according to western thinking???
3 comments:
Hey AD, did you know that those charts are based on formula fed babies? They were created in the seventies some time based on a handful of babies fed formula in some random US state (Idaho, I think?) There are way better charts by the world health organisation, covering average growth for ALL babies.
Here is the chart for girls 0-6 months.
http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/cht_wfa_girls_p_0_6.pdf
As for feeding and co sleeping, my theory, do what works for you. Hamish was fed to sleep until he was 11 months. He still comes into our bed at 4am and sleeps there until 7.
Hi Bron, had a look at the charts you hyperlinked and according to them, she's in the third percentile. I hope I am reading it wrong.
Hopefully it makes you feel better to know that as a white baby born in Samoa I was constantly low weight on the charts and by visual comparison. My mum just stopped going to see the nurse rather than being hassled. Max had very similar stats to Naina but has caught up a bit but I just learnt to smile and stare them down if necessary (it can be hard I know). You and Deepti will know if there is actually a problem!
As to co-sleeping, Max has always been quite a fan but Izzy has never settled in our bed, even when tiny she always grizzled until put in her cot.
Max fed/rocked to sleep pretty much till he was 7 months when he suddenly (violently) refused any help. After four (progressively better) nights of Max enforced controlled crying he put himself to sleep and started to sleep through 12 hours. It almost killed me! Izzy just kind of followed along with Max's established bedtime routine and at about a month older stopped needing help to go to sleep.
I'm with Bron, find pertinant info if it helps but always go with what seems best to you. Every baby and parent is different and should be respected as such.
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