September 21, 2000 - Thursday
At nine months old, Harry has now been living outside the womb for longer than he was a developing fetus inside and he has now more than doubled his birth weight. He's not twice as tall, but that generally takes quite a bit longer.

Harry had his nine month doctor's appointment today and seemed to check out as a thriving energetic boy, except for his place of the growth charts. Apparently, doubling in weight is not enough for nine months and, indeed, he had reached 18 pounds last month when we made a special trip to the doctor's just for a weigh in. According to those measurements, Harry has not grown at all since last month. The doctor was as first concerned about Harry back at his six-month checkup when he had fallen from the 75th percentile to the 25th percentile of his age group. That special weigh-in visit in August was just to make sure he was growing and, at that time, he had. But, this month he's again fallen behind.

There are several reasons why Harry's weight may be off. He had his first cold a couple weeks ago and that can have a marked effect on weight in the short term. Second, the August weight could well have been an anomily since that suggested he gained two pounds in less than two months. And, then there's me. I was always about two years behind the growth charts as a boy and was consistently the smallest in my grade through elementary school. Eventually, some time in high school I sprouted and reached average height and if Harry follows that course, while he may get a few short jokes (somehow those never bothered me as a kid), he'll turn out healthy enough. Nonetheless, we'll try to keep him eating as much as possible on the right stuff. Fortunately, eating has never really been a problem for Harry.


Comments, opinions?