Percentiles

Percentiles

I’ve always been small. Sometimes when I went in for my well-child appointments I didn’t even appear on the growth charts; I was an outlier. Luckily most of my doctors were pretty level-headed and realized that I was perfectly healthy, just little. It’s kind of funny how rapped up we get in numbers. As if there were a perfect formula for the weight gain of a child or a pregnant woman. As if it really matters whether a person is short or tall.  I can’t really remember when they stop measuring your growth against everyone else, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if they did percentiles for adults. I don’t think people would be so smug about high percentiles for weight then.  All in all, I think it’s interesting to see how Cooper measures up physically to other kids, but that’s all. Just interesting. For those wishing to compare your child(ren) for your own self interest, here are Cooper’s 6 month stats:

Weight: 14lbs 9.6 oz – 5-10%
Height: 26″ – 25%
Head Circumference: 17″ – 25%

Obviously when he outgrows his car seat it will probably be due to height, not weight. We’ve got a little string bean on our hands.

Cooper thoroughly exhausted after being prodded and poked at the doctor's office.

P.S. As a side note, it was really funny when the pediatrician told me that Cooper’s proportional height and weight makes him more able to move around. Not like short, fat babies “that sit there like little blobs and can’t do anything as if they were on Jupiter.” That gave me a good laugh.

7 thoughts on “Percentiles

  1. The whole percentile thing really is quite silly, but I do find it kind of fun to compare. Thanks for being so willing to oblige! He sure is a cutie!

  2. Totally in the same boat. We haven’t had his 6 month appointment yet, but Adam has consistently been in the 3rd percentile. Unlike Cooper, Adam’s not tall. Just small in every respect. I get a lot of comments on “how refreshing” it is to see a small baby. I think it’s kind of a weird thing to say.

  3. That is good that your baby has percentages that are close to each other. If you were to have a baby with height of 90%, weight of 90%, and head size of 20% it would be pretty cute (that is what I say for a little bit different looking). On a completely unrelated note, our bean head baby is doing well, but can’t crawl because she was born on Jupiter.

  4. Madi and Cooper are almost the same weight and they are the same height, haha. But I find it funny that my doc said her height, 26″ is in the 45% and her head, 17″ is in the 55%….interesting 🙂

    1. I was talking to a friend that had a little girl and was at first confused about why her daughter’s percentiles seemed to be on a different scale than Coopers, but then I realized (with some help) that they actually are on different scales since they’re different genders. 🙂

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