Can babies be obese?

[booklady1990]

I am feeling very upset, as I just weighed my nine month old son, and when I plot it on his graph, it seems he is at the 98th centile. What is more concerning is he started out on the 50th centile for weight, and his height seems to still be around the 50th centile.

He is bottle fed (was breastfed too for the first four months), and has always had a big appetite, and we are feeding him two healthy meals a day. Our health visitor has referred us to a dietitian and I'm feeling really upset about what they might say about my parenting. I was told, at the beginning, to feed responsively, but I feel like I've messed this up somehow, and I am struggling with where to go from here. I am just wondering if anyone else might have been in the situation and could offer some advice?

How many ounces of milk is he having a day?

Obviously take the dieticians advice but my experience is that babies who take well to food do blow up a bit in that period where they're still having loads of milk and also eating solids and not really moving much.

Mine was breastfeeding all day plus eating three meals and snacks and not been crawling and he went a bit spherical for a while. Seemed to melt away once he started walking and chilled out a bit about the milk.

That is really good to know!

He is having roughly four 210 ml bottles a day and two small meals. I am wondering whether to cut down? Any less than this he seems to cry hysterically with hunger!

98th centile absolutely does NOT mean obese. It means bigger than 97% of babies, but still in a normal range. It’s also perfectly normal for them to be different centiles for height and weight. I’m shocked the HV didn’t explain this to you?!? That’s so sad. I hope she just referred you to put your mind at rest as there’s literally nothing wrong with him. Yes he’s moved up a couple of centiles but I wouldn’t jump to thinking something was up.

Is he crawling/ walking yet? If not that would explain why starting solids would move up a few centiles. He’ll probably move back down again when he passes 1. My baby was born on 75th centile, moved up to about 95-99, then now at 20 months she’s probably levelled out at 75-90 as she’s running all over the place, just judging on how she’s fitting in clothes.

You literally have nothing to worry about. I hope the dietician will be able to explain this to you. Please don’t stop feeding your baby responsively 😭

www.nhs.uk/baby/babys-development/height-weight-and-reviews/baby-height-and-weight/

My two boys were in the 95 percentile as 1 year olds.
They are now very very tall and slender late teens. We fed them healthily and they do loads of sport. Don't worry!

It’s quite unlikely because babies are usually very good at regulating their appetites. It’s also not uncommon for them to get quite chubby at around that age then they lean out when they start walking.

My DD took to weaning really well and was a massive chubster with allll the rolls at that age. Thankfully we were abroad so had a paediatrician who wasn’t concerned and not a health visitor. She started walking at 9.5 months, had a growth spurt and grew into a healthy kid with normal proportions. She’s 8 now and roughly 60th percentile for height and 40th for BMI.

This was exactly the case with DS. Formula fed and on the 98th centile for weight. The weight gradually came off as we weaned him but we have photos of him at 10 months when he was Michelin man. He was slightly slow to get on the move – didn't really crawl much and went straight to cruising and then walking at 14 months and by this stage he was really in much better shape weight wise.

Like PP says, 98th centile is above average but still normal range. I got this once from an HV then DS got sick and didn’t put weight on for 6 weeks and they were concerned about that too. I was like “make your mind up”. At that point, I just ignored what they said.

Surely you need to compare his weight with his length. My ds started on 50th and ended up 90th as a baby, but he was also 90th centile for height. He is a 6ft adult who is not overweight

My son at 6 months was also on the 98th centipede. He started on the 75th.

He was ebf so at that age had never had anything but breast milk. It would not be exaggerating to say he was enormously fat. Like a little sumo wrestler with great rolls of fat on his arms and legs.

No HCP ever commented negatively. He did slim down, eventually!

He’ll shoot up and not be just average height soon by the sounds of it. Don’t worry about it. As long as what you are feeding us healthy it’s ok to be a bit “well fed” looking. Are you and dp tall? What were you both like as babies? Could be that baby is the same if one or both if you were chubby.

My baby was similar, although ebf. Tracked a particular percentile perfectly from birth, then weaning hit and they jumped up 11 percentiles by 10 months. They loved their food!

As they got more active with crawling and walking and the milk feeds reduced, things settled down.

Thank you all so much, there are some really reassuring responses here. Yes we are both tall, I am five foot eight and my husband six foot three and built like a rugby player. Both of us were large babies, I am wondering it that may also be affecting things. It's really reassuring to know that things may still balance out for him- he's not crawling yet and so has very little chance to burn anything off!

I could have written your post when DS was that age. He was breastfeed for 10wks before going onto formula. I started weaning at 6 months and despite all the books and guidance saying babies would naturally drop bottles when they started solids, no one told DS and so he was happily on 5 bottles and 3 meals a day at one point! And he never crawled but went straight to walking at 13months.
All this meant that despite being 50th gentile for both height and weight at birth, he was 98th for weight between about 8months and a year. I was worried about it and asked the HV but they only checked that he was eating healthy food, and basically said he'd even out. And he did soon after he started walking.
He was a tubby toddler, an average sized, sporty child and now at nearly 18years, is 6 foot tall and skinny. More fat on a chip!
See the dietician as you've been advised to, but try not to worry. It sounds as though you've done everything right so make the most of those squidgy baby cheeks while they last!

My DS was on the 98th percentile as a baby, almost from birth. As a child he was normal, as a teen he got slightly bigger, and since the age of about 19 (he’s now 23) he has got quite large, definitely 2-3 stone overweight. I don’t think that’s related to his weight as a baby. He eats a lot of unhealthy food! I’m sure if he wants to lose weight, he will, so I never comment on it.

It will even out when he starts moving but I wouldn’t say he’s over fed. My DD was on the same milk and 3 meals a day plus a supper at night. She was long but thin. She’s still the same eats me out the house but is slim and has legs for days she’s 12 now xxx

Both my DS didn't even plot on the chart for weight or height. My baby is 6months and 29lb and 2ft7 already. We've been referred to a dietitian but he's clearly just a big lad in every sense. They tried to gestimate his weight as 140th centile 😅
You're fine!!
BTW his brother was the same and is now a skinny but verrry tall toddler haha

Oh well there you go then, as soon as he starts moving around it will get burned off. My little one was born on the 9th centile and went to the 50th at 1ish. God knows how as he was walking at 8 months 😂 as you say both yourself and DH are tall if say your little one will probably follow suit. Ignore the HV, they chat so much rubbish that's so bloody damaging to a mother's confidence

Bloody hell that's an amazing jump up isn't it. Bet that's not something they see too often 😂

God I love a chubby baby

@Devilsmommy tbf he was 10lb 7oz born, his brother was similar. They just got bigger and bigger! At A&E the other week and a nurse sat my baby up and then let go haha! She nearly died when he started falling she said she forgot he was so young. Very funny.
Image for context, this is him at 5 months and his 3yo cousin, she asked to "hold the baby" 🤣

It’ll be because he’s not crawling yet but having 4 bottles plus two meals a day. It’ll come off once he starts moving, I wouldn’t worry.

Image is probably still under review as it's not showing yet but that made me laugh about the nurse😂 10lb sounds so big to me, mine was a dinky 6lb7oz. And he never really had much chub as he was crawling at 5 months and walking at 8 😅 I'll wait for the pic to show but I bet he's cute as hell 😊

I’m surprised you’ve been referred to a dietician - my babies quite often grew outwards before they grew upwards. It does sound like your little one is having quite a lot of milk, I’d work towards replacing one of his bottles with a 3rd meal, especially as it sounds like he’s a hungry baby.
As others have said, once they get moving, they need lots of calories - mine ate a lot between the ages of 1 and 2 as they grow so much and are constantly on the move.

The worry is when parents don't know when to stop 'feeding on demand' when the baby becomes a child, and eating solids and before you know it you have a fat 2/3 year old waddling about because the parent stuff it with snacks each time it asks.