4 month stats - question

So, although the doc says Rowan looks great, I noticed that he actually dropped in his percentiles at this checkup - he's now in the 30th percentile in weight and 40th for head circumference, although he's still 75th in length. So basically, he's long and skinny.
He's mostly breast-fed  but he does get some formula, maybe about 25% of his intake. It's hard for me to measure how much he eats when he nurses, but when he takes a bottle at daycare he is eating about 6 ounces at a time (and he goes through 3 bottles at daycare, then usually nurses twice in the evening before bed and once overnight and once in the morning before daycare)). For anyone else with a 4 month old, does that sound about right?
Short of forcing him to eat more often at night (currently he goes to bed around 7:30pm and wakes to eat usually between 2am and 4am), I don't know how to get more calories into him!

Try not to worry about him dropping in the percentiles.  Hannah dropped for a while then bounced back.  Last check up she was in the 90 for her height and 75 for her weight.    Her head was really small for a long time.  She stayed in the 5Th percent.  Of course I was scared something was wrong.  She's finally in the 50Th percent for her head now. 
His intake sounds good from what I remember Hannah eating at that age.   The only way I know to get more calories in would be to add rice cereal to his bottles or start spoon feeding him.  I started Hannah on solids at 4 months instead of waiting til 6 months.  She would smack her lips and practically drool while we were eating. 

So far Rowan doesn't seem that interested in our food when we eat, but he drools buckets all the time!

Cooper eats 6 oz every 3-4 hours (with a 5-6 hour stretch at night if I am lucky.) 

This is the amount he has eaten since he was about 3 months old.  I thought since he was growing bigger he should eat MORE but if we give him more than 6 oz he spits up.  It made logical sense to me that if his intake stayed the same but he gained weight / length eventually he'd stop growing and/or lose weight but he hasn't. 

The doctor at his 4 month visit said to start Rice Cereal - that will CUT DOWN the number of calories he's eating by filling him up with a less calorie dense, but more filling substance.

Cooper didn't like rice cereal much so I put it aside for about 3 weeks.  Just this last weekend I made him some and he actually seemed interested this time so I might start it back up. 

I wouldn't worry about Rowan dropping in percentiles.... he may have a growth spurt tomorrow and be back up.  As long as he doesn't seem fussy/hungry and is developing well I wouldn't stress about it. 

Cooper is entirely bottle fed though.... which is probably why he's such a big baby. (98th percentile for weight and 90th for height....*sigh*) 

Take Care,

Cindy

Zach was in the 75% for everything at his 4 month check up.  He was right at 16 lbs and I can't remember his length.  I couldn't tell you how often he eats, he has NO schedule!  But he eats about 4 oz at a time.  He isn't sleeping through the night yet, well he will for a few days and then is back to waking up again.  Usually he goes down around 8 pm and then wakes up around 1 am and then again at 4 or 5 am.   
We started rice cereal in his milk at night and a few time during the day.  But we have been trying to feed him the cereal and he just kind of keeps it in his mouth and doesn't do anything with it.  He drools constantly too, soaks his bibs and tops at least 2-3 times a day. 
Our other son was always long and skinny as a baby and is now just fine and just a bigger boy but not overweight.  They just sometimes grow at weird spurts and in weird proportions. 

6 hours straight counts as "through the night" from what I've read. Rowan will usually sleep from 7:30 or 8pm to anywhere between 2am and 4am. Then he'll go back to sleep until around 6am to 7:30am.

I'm surprised he's only doing 4oz at a time. We've been estimating how much Rowan should be having based on this formula:

The AAP also states that 'most babies are satisfied with 3 to 4 ounces per feeding during the first month, and increase that amount by 1 ounce per month until you reach 8 ounces.'

So at 4 months now, he is doing 7 ounces. I wonder if Zach might sleep longer if he eats a little bigger meal. Rowan wasn't acting like he was still hungry after eating 5.5 ounces (what he usualy gets at the overnight feeding), but last night he took almost 7 ounces with no prodding from us.

I know, anymore than that and he just lets it all drool out of his mouth.  Sometimes he will only do 3 oz.  Not sure how to get him to eat more at one sitting???  We always make the bottle with 4 oz and if he is still acting like he wants more we give it to him but he usually turns his nose up to it.

Huh, well maybe he's just a born grazer!

If you have a pediatrician that you truly trust (because not all of them are so hot, but you know where you stand with yours), and he/she didn't seem concerned, you shouldn't be either.

I'm not familiar with the normal growth and feeding of a 4mo, but I trust my 6yo's pediatrician 100%. She has proven herself trustworthy to me time and time again over the years. If she told me my future baby's seemingly odd growth was normal, I'd believe her.

Isn't 4 months about the time to start introducing rice cereal and stuff? If so, maybe that'll help fatten him up. I recommend mixing it with breast milk... because that stuff smells GROSS! lol