An early sign of your baby being healthy is her growth.  Your baby’s weight and height progression are important factors for overall general health. This is why, when your baby is in the first few months of its special life, she is weighed and height measured often. Below average growth can sometimes be one of the signs your baby is not feeding well or may even be in poor health. Malnourishment has implications for future health for your baby. However, a healthy weight and height gain is a good sign – if a baby is growing well its likely she is quite healthy.

Later on, because babies’ and young toddlers’ growth rate slows down, weighing and height checks are not as necessary.

The normal average, full-term baby weighs 3.5kgs (seven and a half pounds). Around 95 per cent of babies weigh between 2.5kgs (five and a half pounds and 4.25kgs (nine and a half pounds) – but many healthy babies can, of course, weigh less, or more, than this without there being in any health danger.

Most babies lose body weight in the first few days after they are born – around 10% of the birthweight is considered normal. It's the result of the perfectly normal loss of waste matter (meconium) from the bowels, and urine. You can expect your baby to have regained his birthweight by about day 10. Many healthy babies can take longer than this.

Babies gain weight in “fits and starts”. This is especially prominent with breast-fed babies. Baby weight gain will usually average out to something like 150g-200g a week, usually slowing after the age of three months, and slowing again after six.  Of course there are times that your baby may have a rapid growth spurt and put on more weight or grow more than usual.

Interested in what height your baby will be? See our blog article baby height calculators.