To wonder if fat people overfeed their babies....

[LittlebearH]

Ok...bit of a judgy one I am guilty. I am ready to get flamed!

But I have been to a few baby groups there and cannot help but wonder why a few (VERY) large mothers seem to have overweight babies.

One this morning had a 4 and a half month old who weighed 20lbs and she was weaning him already too. She also told me he has 7 7oz bottles a day. He was just over 8lb when born 2 weeks over due.

My DD is 9 months and only weighs 18lbs and is fully weaned. She is on the 25th centile and I am not underfeeding her!! :)

I was a bit when she told me he is weaning him. Is she over feeding??
Has anyone else wondered this?

Im overweight. I dont have a child (yet!) but your post comes accross as saying "all fat people eat alot/eat junk!"

Yes SOME overweight people are large because of what they eat, but others are not. Ive ever been a big eater, its other stuff thats made me this way! Dont judge someone by how they look, cause you have no idea whats going on in their lives!

Anyhoo, I know someone that is very tiny (5ft, skinny) She had a 13lb baby. YABU!

jessie Meant weaned by 3 meals a day. She still has milk too.

This has made interesting reading.

I have wondered how you can over feed a baby as I have tried to get more milk inside my DD and failed!!

It just seems in these cases I have seen these mothers (talking over a size 20) had exceptionally large babies. And one weaned early and one told me she was going to start weaning at 4 months.

Hence why I wondered.

I pressed post message before amending the thread title!!

Won't do that again!!

It's no coincidence that there are 'fat families' but slim parents have huge children and overweight people have perfectly healthy children. It's not fattish to notice families with weight issues and the 'fattist' babies I have seen did belong to huge parents....

Most people who are overweight overeat.

Hi, I'm a mum over size 20 (evil I know, stone me.) Anyway, I disgress.

DD was on the 9th centile right the way through from birth and is still a little dot.

DS was on the 75th centile right the way through from birth and is pretty spot on from weight.

My friend who is a size 10 (good on her, not evil at all) has 3 children,

DD1 was on the 98th centile and was a very big baby all the way though, weaned at 4 months and chugged her way through milk like you wouldn't believe. She's now a very tall girl.

DS was on the 25th centile and has been small right the way through.

DD2 has just arrived at a whopping 10lb 1oz (ouch) and may well stay like that, but who knows.

I guess what I am trying to say is... ...You're talking bollocks and are just being bitchy because the mum is fat.

I would wager that, like smokers, your children are more likely to be overweight if you are.

Darn, last bit should say

"I guess what I am trying to say is that the size of babies doesn't depend on the size of the mother. You're talking bollocks, etc."

I'm not reading all of the responses, so sorry if I'm repeating something here, but large people can produce large babies. :) I'm 5'8 and a size 20 (er, was smaller pre-baby but there you are) and my son has fairly consistently been on the 75th centile since birth (8 lbs 13 oz or so). BF for a year, always whole wheat breads, reasonably lean meats, veg, no fruit shoots or whatever people have decided is evil this week. No fast food, though he does have some of our food on the rare occasion that we do go out. No doubt because I'm fat people think I've got him mainlining Pom Bears or something. (or, for that matter, think I am, and that isn't true either.)

TFP - what if the father is skinny? Does it even out? Can you balance an underweight parent with an overweight parent in order to get a child spot on with average weight?

babyheave I hope so.

Never mind this baby being overweight. Why on earth is a 4 month old wearing jeans? Do all jean-wearers put their babies in jeans?

Whoah!! just found this thread, OP is a kamakaze!

FWIW my DS was born on 50th centile for weight and height, and by 6 months was on 95th for weight and still 50th for height. He was ebf throughout, didn't give him any solids at all til he was 7 months, at 9 months he's still only on steamed veg plus BF, currently weighing 11kg = 25lb. He only BF infrequently too, like for 5 mons every 5 hours. What should I have done about that then, if I should be aiming to have him on 50th centile or below?

Will be back to check thread progress...

meant fed for 5 mins every 5 hours, obv. not months...

TFM yes they do, or are very inactive anyway. One or the other.
Or indeed, both.

But IME (which is somewhat, from a career perspective, plentiful) the issue grows as the babies age- a chips a day Mum would likely feed the baby what she eats.

However, with formula and BF the bigger risks were with aprents who followed crap advice about cereals and very early weaning, or added scoops of powder extra to 'get them through the night'.

And fat and stupidity does not correlate.

I do lovce this idea that you can tell a woman's diet from a snapshot anyway. If I go into Top Shop and buy a dress the Assistant is bound to give me sideways glances, they always do- becuase I will be chubbiest woman there.

but 6 weeks ago I had to go to evans.

So in fact I bet I eat less than them.

Also DD is only on 9th centile for weight and height. I wonder if having one fat child and one thin child can be averaged out too, then mine would be close to ideal?

So you've seen two women who happen to be overweight, and both of them weaned their babies early? And on this you base your argument that most overweight women forced feed their babies lard?

Hmm. I tihnk you need to get out more if you're going to carry out this study properly. Two people is hardly conclusive, is it?

This thread isn't helpful, productive or insightful.
It is simply someone negatively pointing out something they have noticed, in a nasty way.

You could of come on here and asked for anyone to link you to information on stats for overweight children in realtion to the weight of their parents, or info on generations of fat families so you could then have a proper discussion, but no, you're just a nasty finger pointing ignorant know it all.

It is attitudes like yours that create a feeling of low self worth for overweight people, who then feel judged even more so when they take a step out in public, so they just hide and eat more.

YOU are not helping this situation, YOU are currently making it worse.

An underweight parent?

Sons of overweight fathers are six times more liekly to be overweight by the age of eight and daughters of overweight mothers are ten times more likely to be overweight by the eight.
It's probably not nice to hear, but it is true.

I'm not only slim, I also had such severe hyperemesis that I was very underweight when I gave birth to the six-buttocked-boy. He couldn't get his legs together because of all the extra buttocks. I had to dry a multidude of creases whenever he was bathed. He's now a perfectly average height and weight and a picky bugger food wise. The eldest has always been a long streak of nothing, stuffs his face relentlessly yet could blow away in a gnats fart.

I bet that woman could feel your judgey eyes all over her and her cute baby.

Do you like making people feel crap?

Well, fwiw, SCBUs seem to prefer babies bottle-fed because it's easier to force milk into the baby that way, than through bf'ing. You CAN make young babies have milk, but it can be hard going. I think it's a skill. You have to keep repeatedly stimulating the suck reflex. They learn fast though. What you do with older babies, I don't know.

Littlebear, glad I misunderstood you btw.

This thread makes me because i think it's really cruel to look at a big baby and think the parents must be over feeding them.

My ds has never been under the 75th centile for weight but he is on the 99th for height! He was born 9lb 8 and is big for his age, but doesn't have any fat on him!

Same with my dd. She is 4 and has always looked bigger by about about a year and again she isn't fat at all.

From watching a Channel four program called large babies broadcast several years ago. I thought the latest research was showing obese women tend to have smaller babies than average that put weight on more rapidly than the 'average' and keep doing that through first years.

It has to do with the nutrition during the pregnancy - baby is set up to think it is entering a starvation environment indicated by poor nutrition so puts weight on rapidly to compensate. Nature trying to do its best to ensure survival.

Believe this was based on studies of obese woman and baby weights and studies in rats. Prior to this is was thought obese woman had larger babies - a view still prevalent with some medical people.

They also had on one of the largest babies born in uk who had been bf and like my two in course of first year got down to normal weight with ensuing panic form HV because LO were not following centile lines. I remember all this it as my first two were large babies despite me not being obese and was having to deal with some serious scare mongering and misinformation from MW at the time.

Obviously as this nature it would be general trend not absolutes.

As all mine were large babies the general trend is they will have higher IQ but on the down side large birth weight babies have greater risk of heart attacks in older age, but smaller babies have higher risk in middle age while the low risk of heart attack is with an 'average' birth weight. Seriously - you just can not win there.

One of my children is underweight. The other is overweight.

I must be a scizophrenic feeder.