Know Your Baby's Ideal Weight for His Age

Knowing your baby's ideal weight for their age is very important to help monitor their growth and development so that you can catch up on growth delays or neutralize growth spurts. This is because growth in children in the first year greatly affects the growth of children as adults.

Parents should monitor their baby's weight from newborn to two years old regularly. Ensuring that your child continues to gain weight shows that your child is getting good nutrition. Also, pay attention to body mass index, which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

Weight and height as well as head circumference can be used as guidelines to determine whether a baby's development and growth are normal or not. In Indonesia, the standards used to measure a baby's ideal weight are the World Health Organization (WHO) growth curve and the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) curve. After knowing the ideal body weight of babies 0-24 months, Mommy can provide nutritious food intake, exercise, and adequate rest to maintain the ideal body posture of the Little One.

Ideal Baby Weight for Age

Weight gain in children generally occurs significantly at the age of 1 year and usually increases up to three times the birth weight. After passing this age, the child's weight increases insignificantly and in some cases experiences weight loss.

The baby's weight is also actually influenced by several factors such as gestational age, gender to genetic factors and food intake. The following is the baby's weight according to age based on the WHO curve:

Newborn

Every newborn baby has a different weight. In general, the ideal weight of a newborn is around 2.7 kg to 3.9 kg with a height of 47.5 to 52.0 cm.

4-month-old baby

The ideal weight of a 4-month-old baby ranges from 6.1 kg to 7.7 kg for male babies. While at 4 months of age, the baby's height can reach 61.5-66.0 cm.

6-month-old baby

Entering the age of 6 months, the ideal baby weight is 7 kg to 8.8 kg. Usually the baby's height at 6 months reaches 64.8 to 69.1 cm.

8-month-old baby

An 8-month-old baby has an ideal weight of around 7.6 kg to 9.5 kg with a height of around 68.1 to 73 cm.

12-month-old baby

At the age of 12 months or 1 year, the ideal baby weight is around 8.6 to 10.7 kg and height between 72.6 cm to 77.7 cm.

16-month-old baby

The ideal weight of a baby at 16 months generally reaches 9.3 kg to 11.8 kg. While the height is around 77.2 to 82.6 cm.

18-month-old baby

In the age range of 18-20 months, babies generally have an ideal weight ranging from 9.8 kg to 12.8 kg with a height of about 79.2 cm to 87.1 cm.

22-month-old baby

Babies at 22 months have an ideal weight of around 10.4 kg to 13.2 kg with an ideal height of 82.6 cm to 88.6 cm.

24-month-old baby

At the age of 24 months or 2 years, a baby's ideal weight ranges from 10.6 to 13.7 kg with an ideal height of 84.6 cm to 91 cm.

 Tips to Increase Baby's Ideal Weight

Maybe some parents have done ways to increase the baby's weight. then, what if the baby's weight does not go up? If your baby's weight gain is less than normal, here are tips for increasing the baby's ideal weight:

Breastfeed as often as possible before the baby gets sleepy

The first step you can take to increase the weight of your Little One is to breastfeed more often before the baby is sleepy. We recommend that you breastfeed your Little One every 2-3 hours with a breastfeeding duration of 20 minutes. If the Little One stops breastfeeding before 20 minutes, you can change the breastfeeding position or help the Little One burp first.

Pay attention to the attachment when sucking the nipple

In fact, breastfeeding requires extra energy and effort for most mothers. One of the challenges of breastfeeding for mothers is the attachment when sucking the nipple. The attachment here is the position in which the child is suckling. Incorrect attachment during breastfeeding can cause nipple chafing, decreased breastfeeding frequency and worse, make the baby lazy to suckle. If this condition persists, the baby will find it difficult to gain weight.

Pay attention if your baby has a tongue tie

Breastfeeding can be disrupted by several things, one of which is tongue tie. Tongue tie is a congenital abnormality of the oral organs that can cause limited movement of the tongue and mouth. Tongue tie in breastfeeding babies will have difficulty lifting or moving the tongue. As a result, the baby's tongue cannot properly attach to the nipple while breastfeeding so the little one will remain hungry.

More productive breastfeeding in a comfortable place

Inadequate milk production can make your little one hungry and their nutritional intake is not well met. Moms must be more productive in breastfeeding the baby, try to breastfeed the baby in a comfortable place and with a calm and happy mind so that the body can produce more milk.

High-calorie complementary food

After entering the age of 6 months, babies will need complementary foods to fulfill their nutritional intake. Complementary food itself consists of 2-3 main meals and 1-2 meals every day. And make sure moms provide complementary foods with high calorie menu choices such as carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals to help increase your little one's weight.

Check with the doctor if the baby has a medical problem

Monitoring your little one's growth and development and regularly checking their health conditions can determine whether your little one has a medical problem that affects their appetite and makes it difficult for them to gain weight.

 Things to consider to increase baby's weight

 After knowing what is the ideal weight of a baby from 0-24 months of age, moms and dads can monitor at home whether your little one has the ideal weight and height or not. While caring for your little one to achieve the ideal weight and height, you should not need to compare growth and development with other people's children. It will only make you feel worried and not focus on the growth of your little one.

Moms take it easy because there are several things that need to be considered to increase the weight of your little one from the age of newborn to 12 months as follows:

Focus on quality

To increase weight in babies aged 0-12 months, mom can provide breast milk or formula according to the needs and high-calorie complementary foods. After more than 12 months of age, moms should pay attention to good nutritional intake even though the little one does not have to eat a lot of food.

Additional vitamins

To support optimal growth and development, moms can also add vitamin supplements such as A, C, D and iron. This can help increase your child's appetite.

Provide a pleasant eating atmosphere

The little one who is difficult to eat can be caused by a less pleasant food atmosphere or trauma while eating. By creating a pleasant eating atmosphere and presenting a preferred menu choice, your little one will not make a shut-mouth movement or GTM.

After doing some of the above methods, maybe the baby's weight will not immediately skyrocket. Moms must consistently do it in order to achieve the ideal baby weight. (Aq/MKK)