Infant Feeding - Healthy Infant Growth

Healthy Infant Growth

The average breastfed baby doubles its birth weight in 5–6 months. By one year, a typical breastfed baby will weigh about 2½ times its birth weight. At one year, breastfed babies tend to be leaner than formula fed babies, which is healthier, especially in the long-run. A general guide to the growth of breastfed babies is the following:

  • Weight gain of 4–7 ounces (112–200 grams) a week during the first month
  • An average of 1–2 pounds (1/2 to 1 kilogram) per month for the first six months
  • An average of one pound (1/2 kilogram) per month from six months to one year
  • Babies usually grow in length by about an inch a month (2.5cm) during the first six months, and around one-half inch a month from six months to one year.

Read more about this topic:  Infant Feeding

Famous quotes containing the words healthy, infant and/or growth:

    At least let us have healthy books.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    —the dark ajar, the rocks breaking with light,
    and undisturbed, unbreathing flame,
    colorless, sparkless, freely fed on straw,
    and, lulled within, a family with pets,
    —and looked and looked our infant sight away.
    Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)

    The risk for a woman who considers her helpless children her “job” is that the children’s growth toward self-sufficiency may be experienced as a refutation of the mother’s indispensability, and she may unconsciously sabotage their growth as a result.
    Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)