How much does your 5 month old weigh?

It does sound quite little - I have a nearly 4 month old who is 6.2kgs and she is on the 50th percentile. If your friend looked at the graphs in her Well Child book she will see that 5kgs at 5 months is well under the third percentile.

I'm honestly not sure if she is healthy. She is always sleeping!!!!!

She wasn't a premmie either, she was about 4 days overdue and was a healthy 3.8kg at birth.

I have read somewhere that bubbas are supposed to double their birthweight by 6 months. My bubba is a bit of a light weight, but so is his dad and bubba is definitly a daddy's boy. But as someone above said, it's also about how they are - alert, happy etc. If she is always sleeping it may be bacause she doesn't have enough energy to be awake and doing things. I guess what you do depends on how good a friend she is and if she would listen to you. Or on how strongly you feel about the situation.

Rovic wrote: I have read somewhere that bubbas are supposed to double their birthweight by 6 months. My bubba is a bit of a light weight, but so is his dad and bubba is definitly a daddy's boy. But as someone above said, it's also about how they are - alert, happy etc. If she is always sleeping it may be bacause she doesn't have enough energy to be awake and doing things. I guess what you do depends on how good a friend she is and if she would listen to you. Or on how strongly you feel about the situation.

Agree completely!

Although Lily was only 6lbs 13 oz (3.08kg) she was healthy but gained weight like nobodies business lol! She was 8kg at 5 months!

Like everyone said - each baby is different so if she is happy, and healthy and lots of wet/dirty nappies then maybe it's fine, I know one of the Feb mums babies who was over due by almost 2 weeks only weighed 6kg at 6 months so might just be the way they are...

But the sleeping all the time, what do you mean exactly, e.g she sleeps well for day and night sleeps or she sleeps all the time and has very little up time? Hope that makes sense...

This is tricky one. DD was 5.24 kg at 5 months, she was 2.6 kg at birth (1 month prem). She had a lot of monitoring first year and yes, she is still skinny.

That said, had first cold at 14 months, no other sickness, and is lively and alert. At 15 months she is about 7.2 KG. Not every child can be in the top percentile, in fact half of all kids should be below there and someone has to be all the bottom as that's how the curve works! Its not like school where you get a grade and 50 percent is a pass.   Plus I think there so much pressure for babies to be rolling fat and yep, you get some funny looks if they aren't. My girls paed said that a formula feed bub at the top end of the scale is actually more worrying than a BF one at the bottom end.

My girl eats like a horse, when well and not teething and do get peeved with people insinuating that we not feed her enough.

That said...given this bubs birth weigh etc, if I were then I'd seek professional advice . It doesn't hurt to get piece of mind.   And yep I would be worried...as I used to worry about our girl.

At 5 months old, my DD2 probably only weighed 5kg - but you know, I never took her to Plunket, so I have no idea exactly how much she weighed (3.2kg at birth also, I think). She was, and still is, just little. Back then she was alert, breastfeeding often and pooping equally as often (as is normal), sleeping well for her age - and so to us, it *didn't* matter.

To me though it does sound like your concern is genuine, but perhaps there is some other underlying medical issue going on - and that the problem is not just with weight and the babe's stature alone?

I agree with the others when they wonder how alert the baby is etc, that should give you a pretty good pointer as to whether something is up or not. She might just be a wee baby.
I do find it hard to imiagine a 5 mnth old at 5kg but that is only cause my girl was bigger than that when she was born! She was 5.2kg at birth and 8.7kg at 5 months....... so she is at the top end of the scale. But saying that, she had many tests to make sure she wasn't diabetic (which she's not) So you can't win really!

I honestly only see her when she is sleeping and her mum always goes on about how well she sleeps. I know she giggles (her mum has it as her ringtone on her mobile) but other than that I'm not sure what she does milestone wise.

Both of her parents are very very big people as well, so its not like she is from a petite family. I am disgusted at the way her mum and dad just ignore plunket. I agree, plunket can be a bit OTT, but if it were me I would think about what the plunket nurse said, esp if they seemed worried.

Her parents just seem so ignorant. I don't get it. I feel extremely sad for the baby. To me, its a form of child abuse. PLUS they waited 3 years to have her and went thru IVF so you'd think they would actually give a damn!!!!!!

To me the give away that something might be wrong would be any sleepness or lack of energy.

Have you actually asked them other questions about what baby does or how she is developing?

Even with a babe that sleeps well / often during the day I don't know that I'd be overly worried - my girl has always been a reasonably consistent daytime sleeper and at 5 months was having 3x naps a day, so often would be asleep if we had visitors.

I agree that the parents' stature isn't necessarily going to dictate how bubs would or should turn out, previous generations on both sides could have genetic influence and they might not all be large.

I think it's actually taking it a bit too far to insinuate you think they are abusing their child just because she is small? There are *so* many factors that really do need to be taken into consideration before that kind of call is made.