Immediately your bundle of joy is born, he is checked thoroughly, measured and weighed. Over the coming weeks and months, your baby will be struggling to put on weight which will be used to measure his/her progress.
Baby weight gain is different for each baby since babies are also different. Some babies tend to gain weight slowly than others. Usually, babies born prematurely will tend to weigh lesser than those who were born full term. This is very normal and should not be of grave concern.
A baby is considered full term when born at 37 or 40 weeks and usually weighs around 2.8grams and 4.1grams. After around two weeks, your baby will start to significantly gain weight. A consistent growth is a good sign that your baby is in a good health.
Your baby weight gain is usually recorded in a chart or graph which helps health care providers to keep track of baby’s growth patterns. Problems related to how your baby gains weight occur when baby gains less or too much weight and such babies are usually accorded with extra attention. Also, such problems can be corrected by changing baby’s feeding schedule or formula.
Other factors that may lead to a difference of baby weight gain include multiple births, gender, the size of parents, baby’s general health, birth order, mother’s nutrition and general health during pregnancy.
However, your doctor or pediatrician is the best person to give you an insight into the general health of your newborn.