to wonder if my niece is a bit larger than normal?

[nobile]

At 7 months, no "1 year old" clothes fit her - she's into the 18 month old ones... she's in the 95th percentile for length and completely off the charts for weight for a 1 year old.

Neither parent is particularly large or tall...

is this merely a sign of a future England rugby prop, or do I suggest a visit to the paediatrician?

Is she literally off the chart? My dd was off the bottom of the weight chart and my HV refered us to the hospital. We had to take her every three months. They said that she was OK as she was 'following her own line' and that they only worried if you were gaining or loosing weight to quickly/

Our HV gave us the usual speech about how the weight charts are just a guide and how somebody has to be at the top and at the bottom.

My DD is surprisingly tall considering that both her parents are fairly short 5'2" and 5'8". It doesn't always follow that height will be inherited from parents, the genetics is more complicated than that.I wouldn't worry - im sure if there were issues the HV or GP would have picked up on it already. I was told that my DD is likely to be very tall - so that will be another child i have to look up to when i tell her off - i think im going to get myself a bollocking block - my DD1 (from previous relationship) towers over me and whenever i tell her off she turns it into a joke and says "don't make me come down there"!! cow!

Does she actually look 'big' as in she is carrying excess flabby bits ?? I would say its entirely up to the parents and you would be risking it to mention it. I do think you have to be very carefull when it comes to children being considered overweight.

That said I was very shocked when a Mum at pre-school picked her DD up to put in car and her top rode up to reveal a huge belly overhang that was worse than mine in comparison. All of the family are grossly overweight but I think it a very delicate area and you would have to tread carefully if you were to mention it