How Much Should a 5 Week Old Baby Weigh

Your baby has passed the 1-calendar month mark — hooray! — and is steadily progressing from helpless newborn to interactive (and active!), grin, babbling infant. There'due south so much fun in store!

Meanwhile, you're steadily progressing from rookie parent to (almost) parenting pro. And every bit your baby grows and you both become to know each other better, you're likely starting to settle into more of a rhythm. That volition give way to a more reliable routine over the adjacent couple of months.

Here's what's going on with your baby this week.

Your 5-calendar week-sometime baby's development

At a Glance

Sleeping basics

Newborns up to 3 or 4 months old need 14 to 17 hours of sleep in a 24-60 minutes flow, ordinarily waking every ii to four hours to eat.

Feeding basics

Breastfed babies should consume equally much as they want at this age, but a full general rule of thumb is roughly 16 to 24 ounces of breast milk or formula in 24 hours.

Did you lot know?

When babies imitate the facial expressions of their caregivers, it triggers the emotion in them too.

Though your baby is still trying to tell you what'south going on by crying, she'south as well learning to communicate in other means. Those adorable grunts, gurgles and coos are infant's manner of experimenting with that tiny oral fissure, natural language and pharynx, and discovering which combination of actions makes what sounds.

The best way to encourage more communication from your sweetness talker is to go along the conversation going. So get ahead and coo and gurgle right dorsum!

Matching coo-for-coo volition exist extraordinarily satisfying for your cutie, and will coax your baby into continuing those verbal explorations that will somewhen lead to the beginning meaningful "Mama" or "Dada."

And while speaking your baby's linguistic communication is important, equally of import is speaking your language. Babies acquire by imitation, so be sure to talk up a tempest while y'all're irresolute diapers ("What cute piddling toes!"), while you're out on a walk ("Information technology'southward such a sunny twenty-four hour period"), and while you're shopping ("This red tomato plant looks and then yummy!").

Of course, your baby has no thought what you're saying — yet. But she's soaking upwards every syllable that'south spoken, and hearing you lot talk is the best fashion to assistance your little one's speech develop.

Is your trivial one not "saying much" however? Not to worry. Some babies take their proficient ol' fourth dimension in the words department, and that's perfectly normal also. She'll first baby-talking over the next few months. As always, check in with your pediatrician if you lot're concerned.

Your v-week-erstwhile infant's growth

Your baby is growing past leaps and bounds … or more accurately, by ounces.

The boilerplate 5-week-old baby will weigh somewhere in the 9-pound range — but call back that range is wide. So whether your baby is in the 10th percentile or the 90th percentile, she'll exist smaller or bigger than the boilerplate.

Exist sure to track your picayune one's growth on its ain rather than measuring it confronting that of other babies. If your doctor is happy with your baby'south weight proceeds, you should be too.

Your 5-calendar week-old baby'south wellness

Your fiddling one doesn't have a well-baby visit this week, merely you lot likely have plenty questions about how she'due south growing and developing. Here's what you should know.

Is information technology thrush?

Dry skin

Coldy cutie

How to spot colic

Diarrhea in babies

Postpartum & new baby tips

Baby smiles and sounds

Past 5 weeks of age, when the corners of your baby's mouth curl upwardly, you can safely attribute it to an actual social grin — unless, of course, you happen to detect that telltale odour that means information technology's time for some other diaper change.

And who improve to practice those kickoff smiles on than Mom and Dad?

So go on talking and singing to your baby — plus give your happy trivial cutie some smiles of your own — and that precious baby smiling will keep your center melting.

Something else your 5-week-old baby volition smile near effectually now: music — whether it'south you singing your way through a feeding or the radio humming in the background.

Your baby's acutely aware of other sounds too, like bells, barking dogs, running water and whistles. She may kick with pleasance at these sounds, cry out or placidity down to get a meliorate heed (a lot depends on whether they're sounds that became familiar in utero).

Only be sure to note which sounds calm downwardly your baby best so y'all tin can recreate them when yous need to about!

Stress less about meals

Offset things starting time: Stock up on staples. Fill your pantry and fridge with go-to nuts like low-sodium craven broth, whole grain staff of life crumbs, olive oil and eggs.

This way, your weekly grocery shopping trip will be easier to manage. Plus, knowing y'all've got key ingredients on hand before you lot starting time prepping a meal makes the process a whole lot easier.

Also, don't be a slave to scheduling — let's face up it, equally fun equally Taco Tuesday sounds, things come up and you might decide at the last infinitesimal that you lot want nix more than than a bowl of cereal or Lead and J.

Relieve i slot a week for a leftover potluck and give yourself some extra wiggle room to switch things up then dinnertime stays depression-force per unit area ... and maybe fifty-fifty fun.

Milk allergies in babies

When an infant has a milk allergy, the infant's immune system reacts negatively to the proteins in cow's milk.

If the baby is breastfed, she's reacting to the dairy her mother has eaten (the milk proteins pass through breast milk). If the baby is formula-fed, she'southward reacting to the cow's milk proteins in the formula.

In either case, the allowed system sees the moo-cow's milk proteins as foreign substances, and in its efforts to fend off the invaders, the trunk releases histamine and other chemicals, which cause allergic symptoms in the body.

Symptoms of milk allergies in babies include: frequent spitting up, vomiting, signs of abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood in stool, lack of weight gain, hives, a scaly skin rash, coughing or wheezing, watery eyes and stuffy nose, trouble breathing or fifty-fifty anaphylaxis — a life-threatening allergic reaction and requires an immediate call to the doctor, 911 and/or a trip to the ER.

If your babe has symptoms of a milk allergy, encounter your pediatrician, who will likely perform a physical exam and an exam of your baby's stool, talk over your family's history of allergies, and maybe fifty-fifty perform a peel-prick test and refer you to an allergist for further testing.

Babe acne

If you idea you had until puberty set in to worry well-nigh blemishes tarnishing your sweetie's peel, recollect again.

Almost forty percent of babies develop infant acne, which usually creeps up at 2 to three weeks of age and is commonly gone earlier the 6-month mark.

Infant acne is acquired past Mom's hormones, which are still circulating in a babe's bloodstream.

These pimples that pop upward on your little one's crystal-clear skin aren't pretty, but the skilful news is they're harmless and won't leave permanent scars — only resist the impulse to squeeze them or utilize creams.

The best solution is to go along the surface area clean (with h2o only) and allow the pimples vanish on their own (which they will — and presently too).

Your belly afterwards baby

Even if yous didn't gain much excess weight during your pregnancy, and even if you lot shed most of your post-pregnancy pounds in the hospital, your post-baby bump will probable stick out for at to the lowest degree a month or more subsequently nativity.

And that's okay — afterward all, your skin is rubberband, but information technology's not spandex, and your uterus only stretched from the size of a pear to that of a watermelon. Then it'due south going to take a while to become back to stone-fruit size.

In fact, for the get-go few days after childbirth, you're probable to feel intestinal cramping. That's your uterus contracting every bit it starts to compress. Plus, your abdominal muscles distended to make room for the infant.

Just call up, concord off on the crunches until y'all get a go-ahead from your medico, especially if you've had a C-section.

Strawberry hemangiomas

Strawberry hemangiomas, also known as infantile hemangiomas, are soft, raised berry-similar birth marks that ofttimes appear on your infant's scalp, face up, chest or back. They can grow chop-chop at showtime, just tend to finish by the fourth dimension your little one is a few months old.

Strawberry hemangiomas are common in infants and normally fade away starting around baby's start birthday, oftentimes disappearing completely between the ages of 4 and five years old if not sooner. Sometimes scar tissue remains, however.

These nascence marks form when a group of tiny, immature claret vessels cluster together. The best approach can be to see if the hemangioma will disappear on its own.

If not, talk to your pediatrician to detect out which treatment pick is all-time for your baby. If the hemangioma grows very large or is well-nigh or on baby'south eyes, nose or oral fissure (which can make seeing, breathing and eating difficult), the pediatrician might opt to remove it.

For infants, the doctor will usually prescribe oral or tropical medications and/or injections before considering surgery or laser treatments.

Breastfeeding birth command?

If you lot're breastfeeding, you may accept heard that nursing can serve as a grade of nascence control — and while that'due south not entirely untrue, it's not the whole story either.

Breastfeeding offers some protection — to a bespeak. Sectional breastfeeding, which consists of nursing at least every four hours during the daytime and at least every six hours at night, for the get-go half-dozen months postpartum and before the render of your period, is referred to as Lactational Amenorrhea (LAM). It is considered a form of nativity control so long as all the criteria are met.

Breastfeeding outside of those criteria, withal, peculiarly when you're supplementing with formula or solids and your flow has withal to return, doesn't offer the same contraceptive protection.

For this reason, your OB/GYN volition likely suggest that you switch to another kind of nascency control if y'all're not actively trying to get pregnant (which your doc should advise against until your baby is at least 12 to eighteen months old).

From the What to Expect editorial squad and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected wellness organizations. Larn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date past reading our medical review and editorial policy.

What to Look the Beginning Year, 3rd edition, Heidi Murkoff.

WhatToExpect.com, The 1-Month Well-Baby Visit, February 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, Newborn and Babe Sleep Basics, May 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, How Much Should My Infant Eat?, Apr 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, Colic in Babies: Signs, Causes and Tips for Parents, Nov 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, Diarrhea in Babies and Toddlers, September 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, Colds in Babies: Causes, Symptoms, Tips and Remedies, November 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, Dry Peel in Babies, Dec 2020.

WhatToExpect.com, What Is Thrush in Babies?, Nov 2020.

KidsHealth.org, Communication and Your i-to iii-Month-Old, June 2019.

National Sleep Foundation, How Much Sleep Does Your Baby Really Need?, 2020.

Mayo Clinic, Baby Acne, June 2020.

American University of Pediatrics, Offset Month: Physical Appearance and Growth, August 2009.

National Highway Traffic Condom Administration, Car Seats and Booster Seats.

AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics, Abusive Caput Trauma: How to Protect Your Kid, March 2020.