Weight Growth - Infants and Children

is about 150 grams per week. By the fifth month, therefore, birth weight is normally doubled.

If the baby is not fed enough, weight gain may be more contained. In addition to weight gains of less than 125g / week or 500g / month, an infant who does not get enough milk has signs of dehydration, such as dark, scanty, foul-smelling urine, and hard stools that are rarely released.

To learn more: weight growth of the newborn increases by about 50%.

Months Male weight Weight females 18 from 9.0 to 13.6 Kg from 9.8 to 12.8 Kg 19 from 9.8 to 13.7 Kg from 9.1 to 13.0 Kg 20 from 10.0 to 13.9 Kg from 9.2 to 13.2 Kg 21 from 10.1 to 14.2 Kg from 9.4 to 13.4 Kg 22 from 10.3 to 14.3 Kg from 9.5 to 13.6 Kg 23 from 10.4 to 14.6 Kg from 9.7 to 13.8 Kg 24 from 10.6 to 14.8 Kg from 9.8 to 14.1 Kg

Thereafter, weight growth continues, albeit in slow motion. Around 18 months, in particular, the baby's weight gain is significantly reduced compared to previous periods. If from birth to year and a half the baby increases his weight up to 10-11 kg, from 18 months to 2 years the increase is around a kilo.

The physiological "stop", therefore, must not be alarming: it is not a question of a permanent block of growth, but of a decrease in growth.

Around two years of age, the birth weight is about quadrupled, while the stalemate in weight growth continues up to 5 years; during this three-year period, in fact, the weight of the child increases just under 2 kg per year. At the turn of the fifth year of age, the rate of weight growth gradually increases, up to about 2.4 kg at the onset of puberty .

The weight trend is not homogeneous with respect to that of the height, so much so that around 6 years of age there is a physiological increase in BMI. The earlier this inversion is, the greater the risk that the child becomes obese in adolescence and adulthood (to learn more: adiposity rebound).

The hormonal upheaval that accompanies puberty is associated with a lively resumption of the rhythm of weight growth, which is integrated - according to a "harmonic alternation - with" statural growth.

he will have to make use of specific indexes, which take into account not only the chronological age, but also the statural one. An optimal assessment of body fat, however, can only be obtained through instrumental investigations such as plicometry and bioimpedance analysis.

Weight growth rates (children)

For the evaluation of possible overweight, in Italian clinical practice the ideal weight is used, that is the weight corresponding to the 50th centile for the statural age.
Practically:

• select the age for which the measured height of the child corresponds to the 50th percentile;
• a perpendicular line is drawn from the point obtained, detecting the weight value corresponding to the 50th percentile; thus the ideal weight is obtained.

At this point, both the excess and the weight defect are calculated as percentage variations from the ideal weight (the one measured):

See example

A child is considered:

• overweight, if the excess weight is between 10 and 20% more than the ideal weight;
• obese, if the excess weight is 20% higher than the ideal weight;
• superobese, if the excess weight is 50% higher than the ideal weight;
• lean, if the weight defect is greater than 15% of the ideal weight.