Obese babies

calibriintx

I think people worry WAY too much about fat babies. My little was so fat that she looked physically uncomfortable. Her rolls had rolls! She was breastfed exclusively and didn't start eating babyfood, that I made for her, until almost 10 months old. She never had rice cereal. People were always commenting on her weight, and it made me feel like I was doing something wrong. I didn't use the boob to comfort her - but she did nurse A LOT. I talked to her ped about it repeatedly b/c all the people on my a.ss made me feel like I was hurting her. Our ped told me to chill out, tell the busy bodies to stuff it, and keep doing what I was doing. Even though she was in the 98th percentile for weight, she was in the 90th for height, so he wasn't worried. Plus she didn't start walking until 16 months, and he said she slim down then. And she did.

Now my little is 3.5 and she's in the 73rd for weight and 78th for height. Still high, but no one looks at her and thinks she's chubby. She's a skinny thing. She's tall and very lean. People are always shocked to hear that she's 3, because she's taller than 78% of girls her age. So it makes sense that she'd also weigh more than 73% of girls her age. If I want something to fit around her little waist, I could buy her clothes in 3T, but they'd be way too short on her long frame. Instead I buy 5T when I can find it, or girls size 4, and take everything in so her clothes don't fall off.

Anyway, if you wanna be worried about other peoples overweight kids, be worried once they're 2 and should be active enough that being fat is probably a result of overfeeding, poor food choices, or a medical condition. It could be any of those under the age of 2, but it could also just be a growth spurt or some other reason that isn't a big deal.

I get where you're coming from b/c when we visit my ILs, who live in a small, backwoods town, it's not uncommon to see toddlers drinking Coke from a baby bottle.:frown: < I'm related by marriage to some of them and I seriously want to throat punch their parents. But you can't assume that, that little boys parents are doing something wrong. Maybe he has a thyroid issue and the mom just didn't think it was anyone's business?

Confuzzled4ever

My son was 9lbs 9 ounces and 22 inches when he was born.. I don't remember how big he was at 1 year right now, HOWEVER it would not shock me if the number was in the high 20s or low 30s. He's never been fat or obese. He was always off the height and weight charts the doctrs tried to fit him into. His peditrician did tell me he was overweight when he was a baby, but I disagreed. My son was hungry. He ate a lot. He is stil hugnry and he still eats a lot. He is active. he is healthy. My friends kids are all half the size my son was at their age.. I think they all look small and like they need to eat more.. bu they are healthy and a healthy size/weight for thier age. Our thoughts are skewed by our own experiences.

As a baby he was chubby.. normal chubby like a baby is supposed to be. However by your post, my son was obese and i should be ashamed. I know what your point is.. but think before you judge.

Yes.. some babies are an unhealthy weight.. but you can't judge that based solely on someone stating how much thier child weights.. If I said my 14 year old is 160 pounds (he is) you'd think he was fat.. never mind that he's also 6 ft 2. (now he's not so fat right??) Also. My son has a lot of muscles, he's got very strong arms from growing up doing stuff around the house. He gets a belly occasionally and I groan, because that means he's about to grow some more.

mforsis

My child was measured at the 125 percentile within weeks of her birth. You can bet I watched her food intake. I followed Canada Food guide when feeding her. She ate 3 oz protein at lunch and dinner as soon as she was off the bottle. But I always stopped her there and balanced the meal with veg and milk. (also within the guidelines)

I decided early that she would walk everywhere as soon as she could get out of the stroller. Have you noticed children that are as old as 5 still in strollers? I have seen 2 in the last month.

Now, a grown up 5'10'' stunner, on leaving university she has found that she can still wear clothes from when she was in Grade 8 and shoes from Grade 6 (pretty party shoes that got worn only a few times)

I never mentioned food or weight - just kept offering healthy alternatives. For me, the most important thing is that she has a healthy attitude towards food and her size and health. I think that's a parent's job. And I feel very sorry for children whose parents are not vigilant.

DebbieLyn63

In your opinion what is an "increase in the birth weight of babies"? From my doctor's information an average newborn is 7.5-8.5 lbs and this is a completely healthy weight/in no way "overweight". I see alot of babies these days being born at less than 7 lbs. What have you been seeing as a trend since your last was born?

The general public thought my 8 lbs 6 oz daughter was huge while according to the rest of the world she was healthy. My 9 lb 8 oz son was a mammoth:P He was 2 weeks late btw:)

edited for grammar/spelling:P

My first babies in 88 and 90, were right at 7 lbs full-term. That was considered an average weight for newborns then. When I was in labor with my son 13 yrs ago, (they induced me 2 weeks early because he was already almost 9 lbs), there was a lady in the next room in labor with a baby that weighed in at 10 lbs 4 ounces. I went down to the nursery to see him the next day, and he looked half grown already. His cheeks were so round he could barely open his eyes. I could not imagine trying to birth that baby. 9 lbs was bad enough. After several hours in labor, she ended up having to have a C-section.

That lady's OB jokingly said that he was going to stop prescribing prenatal vitamins to moms, because the babies were getting so much larger over the years. My little chunker was actually smaller than half the babies born that day.

The dr was only joking about the vitamins, but he was seriously very concerned about the higher birth weight of many of the babies over the years. In his experience, the higher birth weights caused problems with delivery, resulted in many more C-sections, and and many of these babies had severe health problems as a newborn as well as when they were older.
He attributed most of it to the higher weight gains of the mothers during pregnancy, and the higher rate of gestational diabetes today.

That was 13 yr ago. Today, as we go thru stores with the baby and meet other moms and grandmas with their babies, we just notice that most of the baby are so much larger.

For reference, my daughter who is 23, weighed 15 pounds at 1 yr and was in the 5% for her weight. My granddaughter today is 18 pounds and is in the 10% for her weight. So the average weight of a 1 yr old has increased by about 15% over the past 23 years.

Her pediatrician stated that the babies that were excessively overweight, were throwing off the 'curve', and she is not concerned at all about her development. She considers her at a very healthy weight for her height.

On an up note, my 13 yr old son, who was in the 95% weight when he was born, and was 20# and 28inches at 9 months (50%), had leaned out by the time he was 2, and has been extremely healthy his whole life. So, as noted by others, heavier babies don't necessarily become heavier children.

Drs also say that older woman tend to have larger babies, so since women are having babies later in life now, perhaps that is partly responsible for the increase in birth weight.
But weight at birth is not as concerning to me as the babies that continue to gain well into childhood and never lose their 'baby fat'.

JoelleAnn78

Formula causes babies to be overweight. They are overfed.

Wrong.

calibriintx

I noticed on the beach this year many more obese children; it just makes me straight up sad, and IMHO negligence on the part of the parent. The kid is learning bad behaviors from their parents; those mistakes could last a lifetime and develop into many more problems than just extra weight.

I think this is complete BS. How can you ASSUME that the parents are bad and teaching bad habits if a child is overweight? I will tell my side of it. My son is 7 years old. He's 4'4" tall and weighs 93 lbs. However, if you look at him (which I will not post a picture of my child on the interwebz) you would never think of him being overweight. Because of genetics, he's got very dense muscles and is overly strong for his age. When he was born, he was 8 lbs 3 oz and 20.5" long. Never once in all of his baby-hood, did have the traditional baby rolls of fat on his arms and legs. In fact when we asked the DR, the doctor got a stunned look on his face and old us "No, those are fat rolls. That's his bicep muscle". He was that sculpted at 2 months old.

However, I will say he's got lingering baby fat around his stomach. We are a healthy-minded family. Both my husband and I exercise regularly. "Snacks" in our house are grape tomatoes, cheese sticks, yogurt, etc. It's a RARE occasion when we have any kind of chips, cookies, or other processed crap.

Edited to add: As far as activity goes, he never stops moving. He's ice skates in the winter, plays baseball in the spring, swims in the summer, and is starting football this fall. He's into anything and everything.

When it comes to babies and kids, genetics play SUCH a huge role it's ridiculous. And I really find it poor to automatically blame parents of teaching "unhealthy" habits if a child is on the heavier side.

With all due respect if you ate that well you wouldn't be on a weight loss site.

dennik15

All 3 of mine were 22-24 lb at that age and stayed that way for a long time. They were exclusively breastfed. Formula causes babies to be overweight. They are overfed. 18 lb is still small for a 1 yr old theyre generally closer to 22-25. I know a lot of people with 30odd lb babies at 1 and its shocking to me because my kids didnt hit 30 lbs till they were three. My 5 1/2 yr old is barely over 40 and hes 47 inches tall.

Ugh. This bothers me, too. "Formula causes babies to be overweight. They are overfed," is a generalization. My daughter was formula-fed because she wouldn't nurse. She was not overfed, nor is she currently overweight. My son was exclusively breastfed. He ate all the friggin' time, and he is far from underweight. Both started out with different food sources, and both are active and healthy weights.

You beat me to it. This type of sweeping generalization annoys me to no end. Both of my sons were formula fed (and given cereal at an early age, gasp). The formula was because I could not nurse for fear of passing some meds on to them through my breast milk. Both were chunky babies, probably to the point of being called obese by the judgy folks in this thread. However, my eldest continues to eat me out of house and home at 13 years old. Rather than being "obese and diabetic" he is a 6 ft tall 170 lb 3 sport athlete. And he just grew out of his size 11 1/2 shoes. His genetics have made him larger than average but certainly not obese (at this point the doc is estimating 6' 5" as an adult). My youngest is well on his way to matching his brother in size, though he grows at a slower pace.

Parents should be concerned with the health of their children, but to insinuate that a fat baby is due to the negligence of the parent is absurd.

BoomstickChick

My daughter has always been a big kid. Right now, she's barely 4 and 48 lbs and 42 inches tall. She's skin and bones, just tall. My youngest is following in her foot steps as well. If I just said, my kid who just turned 4 is 50 lbs, you'd think she was fat too, amirite?

ncahill77

My 10 month old is 31 pounds and 33 inches long, the doctor isn't even remotely concerned as he attained this weight on mostly milk and formula and is at the 150% for height. He is chubby like healthy babies are but not fat. Also my 5 year old weighs 46 pounds but he is also 49 inches tall and lean so don't let the numbers blow you away they don't tell the whole story.

Edited to say: The 10 month old was born 7lbs 4oz and doubled his weight in the first month exclusively on breast milk and the 5 year old was 2 months premature 4lbs 6oz, so they weren't big babies.

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

Nope. Not touching this.

megsi474

All my babies were fat. Like between 20-25 pounds at 4 months fat. Their height percentiles were just as high as their weight, so our pediatrician never had an issue with their size. If they had been in the 95th percentile for weight and 25th for height, that would have been one thing but they overall were just big babies. By the time they were 3, it had all melted off and not a one of them today could even be thought of as overweight. When I see chubby babies, I don't think a thing of it. It's far too early to be concerned about it before you see what their eating and activity habits will be once they're past the formula/breastmilk/baby food stage.

Confuzzled4ever

Wow.. I guess anyone who bottle feeds is also a bad parent based on that indicator alone then too huh?? Ridiclou! There'sa ton of reasons why someone woudl't breast feed. Ranging from ignorance to medical reasons to inability. Bottle fed babies are not overfed. Babies do not eat unless they are hungry. You can't force feed a baby! (go on.. try it.. see how much they cooperate lol) My son ate so much so fast he used to throw his entire bottle back up and scream for more. I had to put cereal in his bottle at 2 weeks just to get some sleep and space between bottles (was also shunned by the peditrician for doing this, but I know my son and i knew what he needed. Doctors don't know everything)

I do think that children and teens are obese becuase of the food choices offered by their parents. but I also know that judging that based solely off of a weight shared by a parent is absurd and without knowing what is going on with the child is absurd. I had someone tell my my son was "getting chunky" a few weeks ago actually.. Yea.. he had a small belly. It's totally gone now and he's 2 inches taller. ( i mean come on he barely keeps his 30x32 pants from falling off! how i that fat at 6 ft2???) people are ridiclous!

Salt_Sand_Sun

Formula causes babies to be overweight. They are overfed.

Wrong.

Very wrong. Both my babies were formula fed and neither were overweight!! Babies eat when they are hungry. I know I'm not the only one that had a baby refuse a bottle/nipple when they were done. You can not force feed a baby. well you can, but tthat would be a completely different topic orf abuse!!

servilia

My child was measured at the 125 percentile within weeks of her birth.

FYI by definition no one can ever be at "125th percentile".

calibriintx

All 3 of mine were 22-24 lb at that age and stayed that way for a long time. They were exclusively breastfed. Formula causes babies to be overweight. They are overfed. 18 lb is still small for a 1 yr old theyre generally closer to 22-25. I know a lot of people with 30odd lb babies at 1 and its shocking to me because my kids didnt hit 30 lbs till they were three. My 5 1/2 yr old is barely over 40 and hes 47 inches tall.

Cool story. 10/10 for judging. My exclusively breastfed baby was probably the fattest infant in 100 miles. Maybe I was lactating formula and not breast milk? Just no. Different babies grow at different rates. True story.

ncahill77

My child was measured at the 125 percentile within weeks of her birth.

FYI by definition no one can ever be at "125th percentile".

There are actually multiple methods of statistical average calculations and 125% percentile is indeed very possible.

ThisCanadian

My child was measured at the 125 percentile within weeks of her birth.

FYI by definition no one can ever be at "125th percentile".

There are actually multiple methods of statistical average calculations and 125% percentile is indeed very possible.

But to my knowledge no child is categorized as being above the 100%, which is what she was referring to.

tehboxingkitteh

I was over 10 pounds at birth. I was the smallest of my siblings. I also had a huge baby, and so did my siblings.

My child looked like the Michelin man before perfecting walking. She has visible 6 pack abs. Guess I did something wrong, according to your ligic? :flowerforyou:

DebbieLyn63

My son was 9lbs 9 ounces and 22 inches when he was born.. I don't remember how big he was at 1 year right now, HOWEVER it would not shock me if the number was in the high 20s or low 30s. He's never been fat or obese. He was always off the height and weight charts the doctrs tried to fit him into. His peditrician did tell me he was overweight when he was a baby, but I disagreed. My son was hungry. He ate a lot. He is stil hugnry and he still eats a lot. He is active. he is healthy. My friends kids are all half the size my son was at their age.. I think they all look small and like they need to eat more.. bu they are healthy and a healthy size/weight for thier age. Our thoughts are skewed by our own experiences.

As a baby he was chubby.. normal chubby like a baby is supposed to be. However by your post, my son was obese and i should be ashamed. I know what your point is.. but think before you judge.

Yes.. some babies are an unhealthy weight.. but you can't judge that based solely on someone stating how much thier child weights.. If I said my 14 year old is 160 pounds (he is) you'd think he was fat.. never mind that he's also 6 ft 2. (now he's not so fat right??) Also. My son has a lot of muscles, he's got very strong arms from growing up doing stuff around the house. He gets a belly occasionally and I groan, because that means he's about to grow some more.

Of course, if a baby is tall, he will weigh more. That is not in question. This baby I am referring to was called very short, like his father, by the mother. She knew her baby was very overweight for his height, and apparently her Ped was concerned about it as well. She simply laughed it off and said that he would end up being built like his father.
I was not rude or judgmental at all to her. I said, hey, maybe he will end up being a pro football player! She said no, and described her husband as more like a sumo wrestler.
SHE was the one who offered up the info of how much her baby weighed after seeing my granddaughter and asking her age and weight. She was talking like her baby was normal and there was something wrong with ours because she was 'so tiny'.
I would never come up to a mom with a bigger baby and start asking how much he weighed and comparing his weight to ours, and calling him 'Huge". I can use him as a reference, while discussing to a forum of strangers, in the abstract, but I have more manners than to say anything negative to a mother directly.


This is much more than normal chubby.

SharonCMach

I agree with the majority of people here, babies go through phases depending on their evolving eating habits and levels of mobility. And just because a baby is large doesn't mean they are eating unhealthy, maybe the child was just a good eater and since it was not yet able to walk, they got chunky, its normal. My daughter is 14 months old and just started walking at 13 months old. She was chunky up until she could crawl because she has been eating solids since 3 months. I made every single bit of her baby food and I believe she has had every fruit and vegetable available in the state of Georgia, lol. I'm extremely anal about what she eats and she only drinks water and milk. Now my (much too young to have a child) baby brother has a 2 year old and they let her drink coke and sweet tea out of her sippy cup all the time, she lives off of french fries and insane amounts of ketchup and frozen chicken nuggets, little debbies, fast food, etc. Even though she lives off junk food she is in the 10-15 percentile for her age in weight and height while my daughter is always in the 70-80%. My mom recently had to start buying her pediasure because she is concerned about her diet and lack of weight gain. So just because a baby is large or small you cant judge without knowing the full story.

My son was a late walker too, he didn't walk till 16 months old. Which is probably why he weighed 32 pounds at 1 year old, and still weighted 32 pounds at 2 years old.

DebbieLyn63

I was over 10 pounds at birth. I was the smallest of my siblings. I also had a huge baby, and so did my siblings.

My child looked like the Michelin man before perfecting walking. She has visible 6 pack abs. Guess I did something wrong, according to your ligic? :flowerforyou:

Did I ever say that anyone did anything 'wrong'? It was a simple observation and opening for discussion. I am not 'shaming' anyone.
You don't have to take my post as a personal insult to you.

ngressman

I was in the checkout line at a grocery store yesterday with my daughter and granddaughter yesterday, and the checkout girl asked how old the baby was. When told she had just turned a year, she was shocked at how 'tiny' she was. She weighed in at 18 lbs and 28 inches tall at her dr appt that morning. She is a healthy and active little girl with chubby cheeks and the obligatory little leg rolls. She is NOT skinny by any means,

The check out girl then told us that her son was 10 months old and weighed 32 pounds!! Oh my goodness! I was in shock. That is the size of a 5 yr old!

Has this become the norm for babies today? My granddaughter is only in the 10% in height and weight. She still outweighs both her mother and my other daughter when they were a yr old. (16 and 15 lbs).

The pediatrician is not concerned at all with the baby's size, as she is perfectly healthy. She says the charts are inflated today because of all the obese babies that are throwing off the curve.

I just cannot imagine how a 10 month old baby can weigh 32 pounds. Granted, the mother was not a small woman, and she described the father as being built like a Sumo wrestler.
But what are they feeding this child to be able to gain this much weight? She even said the child was short, like his father, so he doesn't have extra height to account for it.

A day later and I still cannot get this baby off of my mind. He will hit 100 pounds by the time he is 3 at this rate, and will probably be diabetic by 8 or 10.

I don't mean to start a fat-shaming thread for a baby, so please don't shoot me. Am I alone at being shocked at this??

ETA, The mother said that he was actually walking, which is even more amazing. So maybe he will slim down a bit now that he is mobile. I sure hope so.

If your granddaughter is in the 10 percentile she is tiny. Just like the pediatrician isn't worried about your granddaughters weight, I am sure the pediatrician of the other person isn't worried about his weight. Many kids when they are in the 10th percentile are diagnosed with failure to thrive, but your granddaughter must be following the growth line for her birth weight. My son is in the 95% for height and 99% for weight. He is huge compared to most kids in both height and weight. (Even though I am short and his father is too). Grandad is tall. Some uncles and aunts are tall too. He is fed the same as his younger sister, who is on the 50% for height and 40% for weight. The pediatrician isn't concerned by either. It drives me insane taking my son places because invariably someone is going to ask about his weight. All I am saying is it may not be what the mom is feeding that kid. Some kids grow at different rates, and it is no cause for concern until an older age.

rachseby

Wow.. I guess anyone who bottle feeds is also a bad parent based on that indicator alone then too huh?? Ridiclou! There'sa ton of reasons why someone woudl't breast feed. Ranging from ignorance to medical reasons to inability. Bottle fed babies are not overfed. Babies do not eat unless they are hungry. You can't force feed a baby! (go on.. try it.. see how much they cooperate lol) My son ate so much so fast he used to throw his entire bottle back up and scream for more. I had to put cereal in his bottle at 2 weeks just to get some sleep and space between bottles (was also shunned by the peditrician for doing this, but I know my son and i knew what he needed. Doctors don't know everything)

I do think that children and teens are obese becuase of the food choices offered by their parents. but I also know that judging that based solely off of a weight shared by a parent is absurd and without knowing what is going on with the child is absurd. I had someone tell my my son was "getting chunky" a few weeks ago actually.. Yea.. he had a small belly. It's totally gone now and he's 2 inches taller. ( i mean come on he barely keeps his 30x32 pants from falling off! how i that fat at 6 ft2???) people are ridiclous!

At 2 weeks babies do need to eat every few hours..maybe you just weren't giving him enough formula. Were you expecting him to sleep through the night? I think that probably any physician in the country would advise against putting cereal in a 2 week old's bottles...

arains89

Your granddaughter is small. My 10 month old is 22 pounds. In the 89% percentile for weight and 90% for height and 99% for head (LOL). That said 10% means she is small so it is not an outrageous comment. My baby is big (not at all obese) so it is not abnormal for people to mistaken her for being older than she is. Like a pp had mentioned when their height and weight are aligned you are fine. Also, my five year old son is 45 pounds. And he is average. 32 pounds would be rather small for 5.

32 pounds for 10 months does seem overweight but I would assume that if there were a health issue then the pediatrician would intervene. Don't get so bent out of shape. I don't think being OBESE is the norm. But I do think that some babies are just naturally bigger (like my daughter). She is going to be a basketball player

Morninglory81

I was over 10 pounds at birth. I was the smallest of my siblings. I also had a huge baby, and so did my siblings.

My child looked like the Michelin man before perfecting walking. She has visible 6 pack abs. Guess I did something wrong, according to your ligic? :flowerforyou:

My first son looked like the stay puff marshmallow man from ghostbusters! He is now 3 and solid with muscle definition and not a roll in site!

ngressman

My child was measured at the 125 percentile within weeks of her birth.

FYI by definition no one can ever be at "125th percentile".

There are actually multiple methods of statistical average calculations and 125% percentile is indeed very possible.

But to my knowledge no child is categorized as being above the 100%, which is what she was referring to.

No child is over the 99 percentile. To be in the 100th percentile the child would have to be heavier than 100% of the children his or her age, and that is impossible since he or she can never outweigh his or her self.

BeachIron

I this thread.

It's as if some of the pregnancy websites decided to merge with MFP so we finally have real vitriol. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm very entertained.

jrue1985

The reason you hear people say to put baby cereal in their formula because pediatricians used to advise parents to start doing this as early as two weeks old. It does quite a baby and helps them sleep through the night. I did this with my son and daughters and all three of them slept through the night and none are obese. (it does not make them fat) This was a common practice some years ago and our generation of babies turned out much better than the babies I see today.

This absolutely does not help them sleep through the night.

^^^^^Correct. It does NOT make them sleep through the night. MYTH.

Morninglory81

I was over 10 pounds at birth. I was the smallest of my siblings. I also had a huge baby, and so did my siblings.

My child looked like the Michelin man before perfecting walking. She has visible 6 pack abs. Guess I did something wrong, according to your ligic? :flowerforyou:

My first son looked like the stay puff marshmallow man from ghostbusters! He is now 3 and solid with muscle definition and not a roll in site!

jrue1985

And, at 2 weeks old they NEED that bottle in the middle of the night that they wake up for... so WHY they hell would you try to MAKE them sleep through the night?!