What’s the average baby weight at birth? You may not know the answer, even if you followed a week-by-week guide during your pregnancy to track your baby’s growth. Here, we break down everything you need to know about the baby weight percentile chart (from birth to age 1), including the difference between average baby weight and low birth weight.
What Is the average newborn weight at birth?
The average baby weight for a full-term newborn is 7.7 pounds. However, any newborn that weighs between 6 and 9 pounds falls into the average birth weight range.
What is considered low birth weight?
A newborn is classified as having low birth weight if she weighs less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at birth. Maternal health conditions and premature delivery are risk factors for low birth weight. Although some babies with low birth weight are healthy, it does increase the chances of health complications such as heart or respiratory problems.
Is it healthy for a baby to lose weight?
It’s perfectly normal for your baby to lose weight shortly after birth because brand-new babies lose more fluid than they are consuming. Within just a day or two, she might drop 5 or 10 percent of her birth weight. Newborns start gaining weight when they’re around 5-days-old. Most infants get back to their birth weight by about two weeks of age.
What is a baby weight percentile chart?
The baby weight percentile chart compares your baby’s weight to other infants of the same age and sex. A child in the 50th percentile falls right in the middle of baby sizes. If your baby is in the 90th percentile, then only 10 percent of babies are bigger than her. Anything between the 5th and 95th percentile is considered normal.
How quickly does a baby grow?
In the first few months of life, infants can gain as much as an ounce a day. By five or six months, she should weigh twice as much as she did at birth. Growth will slow slightly after that, but babies still gain up to 5 ounces a week in the second half of the first year. Most babies triple their birth weight by age one.
How much does the average baby weigh at 12 months?
By his first birthday, the average boy weighs 19.8 to 22.9 pounds. For girls, it’s between 18.2 and 21.4 pounds.
At each well-child visit, your child’s doctor will track her weight gain and current percentile. Even if your infant isn’t the average baby weight, the doctor wants to see that she’s growing steadily. Before you know it, your tiny bundle of joy will have grown into a 20-pound toddler!
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