This is a recent guideline from NICE, which gives advice on managing faltering growth in children. A lot of this is common sense, but as it is a new guideline, I will summarise the bits relevant to us. I will not deal with weight loss in the first few days, as this is generally managed by the midwives, but there is advice there if needed.
When should you worry about an infant’s growth?
If they have faltering growth:
- >1 centile fall if birth weight was < 9th centile
- >2 centile falls if birth weight was 9th to 91st centile
- >3 centile falls if birth weight was > 91st centile
- If weight is < 2nd centile, whatever the birth weight.
- If height is > 2 centiles below mid-parental height (ie take both parents heights and plot the mid point on a chart).
NB – if weight is < 2nd centile, this can be undernutrition or small stature, but < 0.4th centile is likely to be undernutrition.