Obese babies

megalin9

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.

sarajeanelles

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.

NavyKnightAh13

My 2 cents: my son was 7lbs 12oz when he was born, and has had problems gaining weight. he finally hit one of those growth spurts enough to where he grew taller and put some weight on. Now, people give me the strangest looks when they realize that one our son is 18 months (he will be going in later this week for his well check, currently if I had to guess he is about 24 or 25 pounds, half my height, mind you i am 5'2" and the last he was checked he was 2'5") and two they see me and think "how is your baby looking so great and you are so fat." (and yes I have had people tell me this, and its like I know I am working on it).

Babies grow at different rates. My son is very active, he walks and runs every chance he gets (he has been walking since he was 9 months) but that is also causing him to burn through more so he has to eat more. He was in the lower percentile (as in 2 or 3 percent) before he had a growth spurt. Some babies can gain more easily (especially if they were heavier when they were born. A friend of mine has a son that was 9lbs when he was born and weighs more then my son) some babies can't. My son is an example of that even though my husband and I are overweight.

ETA: had to correct misspelling.

MikeInAZ

Completely agree. Can't believe how judgmental this is getting.

When we're talking about babies, there's not much you can do to control their diet. They eat when they're hungry and that's that. It's when they start getting to 2-3-4 years old. That's when the picky eating starts and parents move away from "carrots and grapes" to crackers and cookies as snacks. When I see a 100lb 6 year old I have to question the choices the parents make.

Generally, skinny parents don't have morbidly obese children. You never see a 165lb adult man walking around with a 100lb 5 year old. So, I'm gonna judge. It's child abuse in some cases. These parents have 0 regard for their own health and 0 regard for their children's health.

Chubby toddlers and babies happen, but the parents need to be responsible to make sure their children grow up healthy and have normal eating habits. Look at photos from the 50's and 60's, there were no fat kids (with some exceptions). Kids ate at home, kids played outside after school, and that was that.

ChgingMe

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.. Secondly when I see a fat kid and the parents are fat, then YES that is due to poor eating habits and lack of self control on the parents part passing it down to the kids. Yes there are many exceptions to this. But very rarely are kids inherited obesity. mostly it comes from poor nutritional choices passed down to them by their parents, care givers. If obesity was due to genetics as much as we are led to believe then why now has the obesity rate among children skyrocketed. If it were truly genetic this would be an ongoing problem dating back generations. Quite the contrary this is a NEW problem with the advent of more fast food and technology.

JoelleAnn78

My son is in the 95th percentile on his height but he was below the 25th percentile for his weight/height ratio until he was about 9 months. Now he's sill in the 95th percentile for height and 50th perentile for height/weight. He weighed 26 pounds at 1 year and everyone said, "OMG he's so big!" Well, he really wasn't. For a long time he was underweight for his height and now he is average. Comments like that give parents a complex.

I know I do everything in my power to be sure my son has veggies, fruits, carbs, protien and his milk every single meal and he has had a total of three ice cream experiences in his short little 13 months. I know it is hard, but I think it is better for us to all assume that parents are doing the very best they can unless we know otherwise.

My goddaughter was a peanut and everyone kept saying, "She's so tiny. Don't you feed her?!" She had a hole in her heart and had open heart surgery at 18 months. She was failing to thrive regardless of how much she was fed. We don't know that the little one you saw in the store didn't have a medical issue. A friend's baby had encephalitus and was on steroids for three months when he was 9-12 months. He ballooned and was very, very large. Had she told no one what was happening she would have been undoubtedly judged for her child being obese. Once he was off the steriods he has slimmed back down and is in the normal weight range for an 18 month old. Be gentle with your judgements - there is almost always more to the story.

Im_NotPerfect

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.. Secondly when I see a fat kid and the parents are fat, then YES that is due to poor eating habits and lack of self control on the parents part passing it down to the kids. Yes there are many exceptions to this. But very rarely are kids inherited obesity. mostly it comes from poor nutritional choices passed down to them by their parents, care givers. If obesity was due to genetics as much as we are led to believe then why now has the obesity rate among children skyrocketed. If it were truly genetic this would be an ongoing problem dating back generations. Quite the contrary this is a NEW problem with the advent of more fast food and technology.

I'm sorry...I thought this was a FITNESS site (hence the My FITNESS Pal)...not just a weight loss site. My mistake....

ldrosophila

Completely agree. Can't believe how judgmental this is getting.

When we're talking about babies, there's not much you can do to control their diet. They eat when they're hungry and that's that. It's when they start getting to 2-3-4 years old. That's when the picky eating starts and parents move away from "carrots and grapes" to crackers and cookies as snacks. When I see a 100lb 6 year old I have to question the choices the parents make.

Generally, skinny parents don't have morbidly obese children. You never see a 165lb adult man walking around with a 100lb 5 year old. So, I'm gonna judge. It's child abuse in some cases. These parents have 0 regard for their own health and 0 regard for their children's health.

Chubby toddlers and babies happen, but the parents need to be responsible to make sure their children grow up healthy and have normal eating habits. Look at photos from the 50's and 60's, there were no fat kids (with some exceptions). Kids ate at home, kids played outside after school, and that was that.

Be careful judging prader willis is a very real concern or that child may be on steroids for childhood cancer. Never make assumptions about a heavy child unless you are that child's physician even if you see a fat parent.

Oh an on top of this add children that have conditions such as autism they have textural and taste avoidance which means sometimes all they will eat is chicken nuggets.

ChgingMe

Completely agree. Can't believe how judgmental this is getting.

When we're talking about babies, there's not much you can do to control their diet. They eat when they're hungry and that's that. It's when they start getting to 2-3-4 years old. That's when the picky eating starts and parents move away from "carrots and grapes" to crackers and cookies as snacks. When I see a 100lb 6 year old I have to question the choices the parents make.

Generally, skinny parents don't have morbidly obese children. You never see a 165lb adult man walking around with a 100lb 5 year old. So, I'm gonna judge. It's child abuse in some cases. These parents have 0 regard for their own health and 0 regard for their children's health.

Chubby toddlers and babies happen, but the parents need to be responsible to make sure their children grow up healthy and have normal eating habits. Look at photos from the 50's and 60's, there were no fat kids (with some exceptions). Kids ate at home, kids played outside after school, and that was that.

Be careful judging prader willis is a very real concern or that child may be on steroids for childhood cancer. Never make assumptions about a heavy child unless you are that child's physician even if you see a fat parent.

I don't think chubby or fat is the issue here. I know for me I am speaking to a child like my former coworkers who was morbidly obese at the age of 6. She was huge. Steroids or other disorders or diseases will make you chubbier or fat. But a 100+ pound 5 or 6 year old or a 300 pound 10 year old is not due to medication.

ThisCanadian

Completely agree. Can't believe how judgmental this is getting.

When we're talking about babies, there's not much you can do to control their diet. They eat when they're hungry and that's that. It's when they start getting to 2-3-4 years old. That's when the picky eating starts and parents move away from "carrots and grapes" to crackers and cookies as snacks. When I see a 100lb 6 year old I have to question the choices the parents make.

Generally, skinny parents don't have morbidly obese children. You never see a 165lb adult man walking around with a 100lb 5 year old. So, I'm gonna judge. It's child abuse in some cases. These parents have 0 regard for their own health and 0 regard for their children's health.

Chubby toddlers and babies happen, but the parents need to be responsible to make sure their children grow up healthy and have normal eating habits. Look at photos from the 50's and 60's, there were no fat kids (with some exceptions). Kids ate at home, kids played outside after school, and that was that.

Be careful judging prader willis is a very real concern or that child may be on steroids for childhood cancer. Never make assumptions about a heavy child unless you are that child's physician even if you see a fat parent.

But then how else can I feel smug and superior to other parents? /sarcasm.

Honestly though, you are making great points in this thread. :flowerforyou:

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.