centiles - what do they mean?

[black_cat51]

hi, i had a surprise when i went to the hosp today - the consultant who saw me said that my baby was too small (in the first centile) I then had a scan in the u/s dept where they measured it to be on the 10th centile so it was a false alarm.
What do centiles actually mean ?

[ojread2]

Centiles are averages of X amount of babies of the same dates as yours

[black_cat51]

still dont understand though - it cant be that if the baby is on the 50th centile then 50% of babies are that size

[sunny-dave]

50% are that size or smaller I think

[sunny-dave]

So 10th centile means that nine out of ten babies (at your stage of pregnancy) are bigger than yours - and one out of ten are the same size as yours or smaller.

[Prudie]

On the 50th centile it means roughly half-way - half of all babies would be below that figure and the other half above.
Your 10th centile means 90% are bigger than that and 10% smaller. (roughly)

[lcg]

no.....babies are measured/compared to a one hundred centile scale (as in 0% to 100%). if your baby is at the 10th percentile, it is the equivalent of the smallest 10% of babies. don't panic - it could be that you do have a small (but perfectly formed!) baby, you may be quite tiny, or they/you could have your dates mixed up.

there are a whole host of reasons why this could be the case, so don't panic and it will be monitored. also, as babies are born and develop, they continue to be measured in percentiles. in my experience, it doesn't really mean much for most people - my son was small and in the 12th percentile. he is now 18, 6'5'' and a big bruising rugby player. keep calm about things and discuss with your midwife. i'm sure all will be fine x

[sherrardk]

Glad someone has finally explained this to me (not that I am going to need this information again).

[annie0000]

The thing to remember here is that these centiles are all based on averages and in order to have an average there have to be half the kids below the mid point - not everyone will be above average it can't work that way. There is no reason to be worried.

[factor-fiction]

When one of the little factors was born we were told he was in the first centile. This sounded worrying until we realised that in effect over half a million of the UK population are in the smallest centile for the relevant cohort. And this little factor is now a teenager of average height and weight

[annie0000]

It's certainly cheaper in the long run if they are in the lower centiles - I have the opposite, my two boys are in the 95th centile and I am now buying age 14 and 13 or adult size Small clothes for kids who are only 11 and 10 and they are in adults shoes as well so paying tax on top......and they eat us out of house and home!!!

[ojread2]

wait until baby is born when your HV is obsessed with centiles