People always commenting about size of baby

[ChunkyLove]

I don't know if I'm unreasonable or not but everyone who sees my baby is always going on about how chubby he is.

He is big, chunky with rolls! But the way everyone keeps mentioning it is making me paranoid that he's too big (he's still under 6 months). So much so that I even spoke to the GP to make sure I wasn't feeding him too much.

Everyone always says it as a positive thing (chubby babies are cute, that sort of thing...) But I don't know, it bothers me. Mainly because it worries me that he's too big.

If you had a big baby did you have this? And did it concern you? Did your chubby babies grow into big toddlers, children, adults? Or did it even out?

He's perfect to me but he's my first.

I used to get this about my son when he was a baby. To be fair, he was big - born at 9lb 6oz and just carried on thriving from there. He was chubby as a baby but now, at 7, he's tall and skinny, just like his Dad.

I now get endless comments about how tall he is for 7 especially when I am on my own with him because I am a pint sized 5ft 2in and he is 4ft 5in already

I love people saying ds2 is chubby. Might be a bit silly but as I'm breastfeeding him it makes me feel quite pleased with myself.

Really wouldn’t worry.
Pre-8 months, our youngest resembled a cannonball. he started to move thereafter and spent the following 7 years on the 45th percentile weight wise and 98th height wise. School gave him a golden ticket if he managed to eat half of his lunch for a week.
He’s 18 now, 6ft 3, healthy, happy and perfectly proportioned.
At your little one’s age, it’s meaningless.

I had a big baby, people would come up to him in the pram and say ahhh he's so cute how old is he? And I'd tell them and they'd be shocked and say but he's SO big?! At 8 weeks a midwife weighed him and said oh I must have made a mistake, I'll weigh him again but it was correct... everyone squeezes his thighs and makes comments. Most of the time it's funny but occasionally annoying everyone has said big babies are the best though!! I agree!

I was so worried with my first as he started small, under 7lbs but climbed up the charts to near the top for weight and just 25% for height. The thing that stopped me worrying was a lovely health visitor saying ‘oh you’re not worried are you’ in a tone that let me see she was not at all worried. He was able to be ill for a month with rolling ailments from starting nursery and it wasn’t as worrying as it would have been if he had no cushion.

The next two were the same- I thought my tiny 6lb daughter might stay dainty, but no the midwife was checking her scales for accuracy after she put on a pound a week in the early days.

Please don’t worry about it!

Babies have a good store of fat for a reason - if they become ill they can lose weight alarmingly quickly. My Gds was a real roly-poly little Michelin man but lost quite a bit of it at 4 months, when he was in ICU for a week with severe bronchiolitis. Then EBF, he put most of it back on fairly soon afterwards.

He’s now coming up to 5, tall and very slim, barely an ounce of fat anywhere.
They nearly always start to lose it once they start running around. As long as they’re not being fed a load of junk, they’ll be fine.

I get the other side of the comments with my teeny little DD who is on the 9th centile - Pea Head, Little Doll, am I not feeding her enough, scrawny etc
As you can see from this thread most people adore chubby babies with rolls and see them as healthy and robust, much better to survive illness etc Which just makes me feel paranoid about DD ever getting poorly. People generally just don't think how their comments affect people.

My DS was on the 65th centile and super tall, I had zero comments about him.

My dd was a big baby, no rolls of fat but very long and weighed a lot. She is now an adult, tall and very slim her BMI is around 13%- 15% and she is super fit without any excess body fat. Everyone commented and it got on my nerves. Now people say oh isn't dd thin , I just ignore them. She is healthy.

Thanks everyone. You've reassured me.

Obviously I think he's perfect but you can't help but worry sometimes can you.

The GP wasn't concerned at all (I've barely seen my HV - she's rubbish). The GP has checked him over a couple of times now at his vaccination appointments and said she doesn't even bother weighing them these days (unless losing) as she finds high percentiles just worry people unnecessarily, he'll lose it when he's moving, can't put him on a diet so what's the point of worrying, nothing wrong with him and so on... so that's good. Just couldn't help the niggle!

Ds was never above 9th centile but still had “isn’t he big” type comments, I think when it comes to babies many people see saying that as a compliment

@SVRT19674 I never knew that about prems sounding like a cat! My DS wasn’t considered prem - born bang on 37 weeks weighing 5.1lb - I always say to DH that he sounds like a cat when he cries!

It’s so annoying OP. My baby was born small weighing 5.1lb, so I get comments the other way. He’s 10 weeks now and still looks like a newborn as he’s only just 9lb at most.

My cousin has just had a baby weighing 10.7lb - he’s bloody huge, straight into 3-6. She’s already getting comments on social media, so can only imagine what people are saying IRL.

People just need to say something when they see babies, and as babies are fairly boring, that does just leave the obvious to comment on (big, small, tall, hair etc)

I think there's plenty to say about a baby except their weight. How beautiful their eyes are, them laughing or playing. Their smile. There's plenty. My 7 month old is 22 pounds and is fed the recommended amount. He's on the same centile curve that he was born on. He's absolutely beautiful and has the most gorgeous big bright blue eyes and the cutest smile and laugh. Yet all family comments on his how big he is or how heavy he is when they pick him up. I had a family member say that they would need another shoulder operation if they tried to pick him up. It's really offensive actually.
But as long as you know your baby is healthy and happy then that's all the matters. I just make comments back now. It they say gosh he's really big. I just say gosh you're really annoying 😂😂

There nothing much to say when you see a baby..bit like when the waiter makes you taste the wine and you have to make some sort of comment when the vast majority of us are just thinking "yep..that's wine"...similarly, most people are probably thinking "yep, that's a baby" and so say the first thing they can think of. In your baby's case, he is chubby, so they comment on that. In the same way if a baby had cute freckles, or any other distinguishing feature, lots of hair, they would comment that

I had a IUGR prem baby who has always been tiny with a small appetite. I have had people accuse me of not feeding her properly and telling me she needs more calories. When it comes to kids people have always got an opinion.

My dc is huge, 95th centile at birth and still that at 18 months. People are always commenting and I've even had a suprised/horrified intake of breath. I hate it so now I just lie and say she is 3-4 older if asked. I'm afraid to say though, I was the same, absolutely enormous since before birth, despite being ebf, thin parents and healthy meals at home, and I've struggled with my weight my whole life.

3-4 months older

I had the opposite. My baby was only 6lb and put on weight very slowly. I felt guilty but hv told me not to give her top up formula. I always had comments that she was hungry and I wish I'd followed my instincts now.

I had the opposite of that so it goes to show you can’t win, my son was 10lbs 4 I bf him but got constantly told by people (family) that my milk wasn’t enough for him and he was too big so needed extra as my milk wouldn’t be enough to keep him happy at his size 🙄 luckily I knew that was ridiculous and ignored

One of my DC - a DD - was over 10lbs. Since she was my first I just presumed that was average and thought other babies tiny (but didn't comment). She had rolls of fat round her face until 12 months. She did sleep through the night early on so don't know if that's regular for bigger babies who can take on more food/have more reserves?. Weight peeled off as she started walking/running/swimming. Now slim small adult.

My friend has two kids who were both massive as babies and toddlers. Big chubby cheeks and covered in lovely squishable rolls

They're now 4 and 6, slim and really tall. They both seemed to shoot upwards and slim down overnight at around 3yo.

Both my babies were big, on the 90th centile and chunkier than all the others at baby group and nursery. I had these comments constantly. LIke you, they were not said meanly but I had a complex about it and was worried I was over feeding them! It all evened out once they started moving around and they are both skinny things now (14 & 10) so it was obviously not 'fat' but normal baby 'chunkiness'. When I look back at photos, they look beautiful healthy babies but at the time I was worried sick! I love a chunky baby :) :)

Yep my daughter was over 9lb and quite big until about 3 where she just slimmed out. Even I was a bit worried at points but yeah it was family that commented which was nice

My second and third were born over the 99th centile. They’re perfectly average sized maybe a bit tall. My smallest who was more average at birth is the biggest (tall and solid but skinny). It’s not a long term indicator.