Low birth weight is most often caused by being born too early premature birth. That means before 37 weeks of pregnancy. A premature baby has less time in the mother's womb uterus to grow and gain weight.
Much of a baby's weight is gained during the last weeks of pregnancy. Another cause of low birth weight is a condition called intrauterine growth restriction IUGR. This occurs when a baby does not grow well during pregnancy. It may be because of problems with the placenta, the mother's health, or the baby's health.
Babies can have IUGR and be:. Full term. That means born from 37 to 41 weeks of pregnancy. These babies may be physically mature, but small. In addition to premature birth and IUGR, things that affect the pregnant woman can increase the risk of having a low birth weight baby.
They include:. In addition to weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces, babies with low birth weight look much smaller than babies of normal birth weight. A low-birth-weight baby's head may look bigger than the rest of his or her body. He or she often looks thin with little body fat. One of the main reasons for regular prenatal exams is to make sure your baby is growing well. During pregnancy, the size of your baby is estimated in different ways.
Your steady weight gain is one way of checking on the baby's growth. Another way is fundal height:. To check fundal height, your healthcare provider measures from the top of your pubic bone to the top of your uterus fundus.
Fundal height is measured in centimeters cm. It is about the same as the number of weeks of pregnancy after the 20th week. For example, at 24 weeks' gestation, your fundal height should be close to 24 cm.
Your healthcare provider may also use fetal ultrasound to check your baby's growth and development. In most cases, metric units are used to record babies' weight. This chart will help you convert the metric unit grams g to pounds lb and ounces oz. Like weight, length and head circumference help your baby's healthcare provider get an idea of his or her overall health.
They may also be measured using metric units, centimeters cm instead of inches in. Generally, a newborn's head is about half the baby's body length in cm plus 10 cm. So if you baby is say only 30" but has a really tall torso they may outgrow the car seat before they his the height limit because the top of their head is to close to the top of the seat. Weight gain really slows down once they start moving.
My four and a half year old just reached 40lbs, so 35 was around age three. Yeah my almost 7 year old is 35lbs! She is obviously on the small side but I think you've got plenty of time :. We transitioned out of the infant seat around one year because my LO was getting too long.
He only weighed about 20 lbs. A lot of convertible car seats go from like 5 lbs up so you could transition at any time if you find a car seat that accommodates that.
It's funny that you would ask this question. So we registered for a forward facing seat too. It says it's for lb children, it converts but it's always forward facing.
My parents were generous and bought it for us, which is so awesome, except now it's going to sit in the box in the nursery until she's at least 2! I was so naive to car seat laws and safety when I registered. Seriously, if it wasn't for all the awesome info I get on this board, I'd be so lost as a parent! You ladies are the best!
More than likely, your baby will outgrow the height limit before he outgrows the weight limit. Your baby will outgrow it by height before reaching the weight limit. It usually states a specific height limit in the manual as well as head at least 1" below top of the seat. Sometimes the head is 1" below prior to reaching height limit if baby has a long torso so it all depends. Personally, I would wait. She was always thinner than I, but totally normal, no sickness or anything.
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