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Childbirth

Does a fat baby become a fat adult - worried mother!

50 replies

bertie007 · 17/10/2011 06:16

My little baby girl is 5.5 months old and weighs 8.8kg (19.5lb) she is nearly 100 per cent on the growth chart for weight and length. She is still on just milk, I will start her on solids in 2 weeks. She gets 4 bottles of 8oz per day (4oz more per day than it suggests on my tin which says a baby of 5 months weighs roughly 7kg/15.5lb). Everyone comments on how enormous she is (and thinks she's a boy). At 4/5 months she barely fitted into half of her 6-9 month clothes (long body, big tummy, very big thighs and long legs).My husband and I are not overweight and my older two children are average or a bit skinny if anything. Will she stay a whopper as a an adult? Is this genetic? Do I need to be careful what I wean her on to? All advice welcome.

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GirlWithTheMouseyHair · 24/10/2011 09:11

another anecdotal one - DH was a proper chubby fat baby, the photos of him are INSANE! But from toddlerhood he slimmed down and has been a total string bean since.

I was an average to skinny baby, chubby teenager and now kind of average late-20's so I don't think your baby size dictates how you will be for the rest of your life, and take weaning at her pace, we had a brilliant time doing a mix of purees and BLW...then he turned 19months and decided he would nothing but cheese and ham. He's now 3...ugh

smartyparts · 23/10/2011 22:09

My ds1 was a porker. 9lb2 at birth, he got fatter and fatter despite exclusive bf. He was on 98th centile at 2 with rolls of fat.

He is now a very slinky 13 year old, and was in fact, only fat until about 2.5.

Karoleann · 23/10/2011 22:05

DS2 was massive, 50th centile weight at birth then 99.6th centile weight at 4-11 months. Basically he had 3 chins. Now at 3 he's barely 25th centile for weight even though he's over 75th for height.
If you cut down on feeds she'll be grumpy.
I don't think its possible to overfeed a baby with milk.

Fluffycloudland77 · 22/10/2011 18:44

Oh and at six months old I took a huge slab of christmas cake off my mums plate and shoved it in my mouth. I didnt choke.

I had my own version of baby led weaning. I dont think I lasted long on puree after that.

Fluffycloudland77 · 22/10/2011 18:39

I was, ahem, a bonny baby. I was on the toddler scales at the clinic waaay before I was a toddler and my mum was lectured that I would be a fat adult.

I am now a size 6-8 without dieting I just eat healthy. My mum said the other mums babies at the health visitors clinic looked half starved to her so she fed me until I was full.

jamandposterpaint · 22/10/2011 17:08

My dd1 was over 9lb and very long. She was 91st centile for height and weight for a very long time.
She's now 11 and is roughly average height and measured around 25th centile on weight when checked in Y6.

My dd2 was a tiny bit under 9lb and was very short. At one point she was 98th centile for weight and 25th for height.
She's now roughly average for both, but she only properly evened out when she was around 7yo.

My dd3 was well over 9lb and was very very short. She was 98th centile for weight and 2nd for height
She's still chubby (she's 4) but has grown a little bit and is roughly average height now. I'm not as concerned about her as I was about dd2 as I have witnessed dd2 'evening out'.

My dh was 10lb 2 and although is a small adult, he is nowhere near overweight.
I was a tiddler and am overweight.

NellyTheElephant · 22/10/2011 16:51

My DD1 was ENORMOUS!! At the time I remember thinking that she was rather chubby, but I was also slightly blind thinking my baby was the most beautiful ever to be born so it's only really now when I look back at the photos now that I realise just how unbelievably vast she really was!! Once she started crawling she slimmed down a bit, once she was walking she slimmed down further but up to around 3 she was still fairly chubby. Now rising 7 she is an absolute string bean. She's very tall for her age, eats like a horse and is extremely active and bouncy. My MIL was even asking recently whether she's OK as she is so very thin, but she's not actually too thin just very willowy (had her height and weight routinely checked when at the doctor the other day and he said she was perfect - her weight is on 75th centile but she's so tall that she's v thin). So in my experience - no, a fat baby is not necessarily a fat child

CristinaaarghdellAaarghPizza · 21/10/2011 09:41

My DS looked like Winston Churchill when he was a baby - he was a big ball. Now he's 4, he can only wear trousers with adjustable waistbands because he's so skinny, they fall down otherwise.

When he was 9 months hold, he had a horrible infection, didn't eat for a week and had to be fed by nasal gastric tube. At that point I realised why babies are supposed to be fat because he went from really fat to quite thin in a matter of days. If he'd been thin when he'd got ill, it could have been much more dangerous

mrsravelstein · 21/10/2011 09:40

i've had 2 extremely fat (rolls of fat on their rolls of fat) babies who at 10 and 3 are now tallish and pleasantly broad-shouldered but not at all overweight.

i definitely wouldn't worry about it.

tryingtoleave · 21/10/2011 09:38

Don't worry yet. Ds was sooo fat. He was 19 kg when he was two. He's now 5 and is still 19 kg( and very tall to balance it out).

TonksmarriedaWerewolf · 21/10/2011 09:32

DD1 was a big baby and is really skinny now at 7.10.
My Dad and DB were both enormous babies too. By comparison i was always a slim baby/child and i'm the one with the weight problem.

I'd advocate BLW too, DS never looked back!

midnightexpress · 21/10/2011 08:31

DS1 was a very chunky baby and is now a long very skinny 5 year-old. Once he was mobile he slimmed right down and then once he got to about two and started getting more picky over what he was eating it just all fell off.

MurderBloodstabsandgore · 21/10/2011 08:26

I don't say I do BLW with DD BTW, as I also spoon stuff into her, but basically she loves to shove the food in herself (whole veg, toast, I chop up her dinner with scissors and shove it on her tray) it makes a lot of mess but you don't sit there spooning it in, so it's a time trade off IMO! We didn't wean until 6months and she grabbed food off my plate and was straight into 3 meals a day :) We gave up salting things when we had DS so that was easy.

She's never choked and eats quite a lot, more than if her feed her as she is bossy about the spoon!

MurderBloodstabsandgore · 21/10/2011 08:20

My DS was a lovely fatty baby and now a skinny 4YO.

I also needed telling that the pop belly thing is down to not enough space for their organs until they get bigger and the abdominal cavity lengthens. That was definitley true in DS's case, he had the belly as a toddler and it's gone now he's a boy! misses the soft lovely fat baby

Lizzylou · 21/10/2011 08:16

DS1 was 8lb 13oz born and gained weight rapidly, he was huge at 6mths, people thought he was 1 yr old. He is now a tallish skinny 7 yr old.

DS2 was 10lb 11oz born and built like a rugby player, he gained weight less rapidly than DS1 but was still massive in comparison to other babies. He is now really quite small for his age (5.5yrs) and very slim.

Please don't worry.

OneHandFlapping · 21/10/2011 08:07

DS2 was like a little seal at 4 months, he was so blubbery. He's been an absolute string bean since he was about 4, and at nearly 16 hasn't as ounce of fat on him.

TheOriginalFAB · 21/10/2011 07:58

At 22 weeks, ds1 was 18lb 4 1/2 oz.

TheOriginalFAB · 21/10/2011 07:50

Hopefully this will reassure you. DS1 was often called big, etc and it used to really upset me. He is 10 now and is a skinny thing, very tall and eats like a horse. I am fat, his father is slim and I am hoping they take after him and not me. Don't worry about it and she is in proportion as she is on both centiles at the same level. Please don't put your baby on a diet when she starts on solids. When she starts to move around she will change her shape.

Robotindisguise · 21/10/2011 07:39

Bertie, you don't do purees, you slightly overcook a piece of brocolli and give it to them. They sometimes gag but choking is rare because their gag reflex is further forward in their mouths than it is with adults.

My (big baby) DD took to it so well she was choffing a full roast by 7 months though, it's not always the case that BLW babies have a smaller diet!

nooka · 21/10/2011 05:18

I didn't do baby led weaning (heard about it long after my two were past that stage and wished I'd used it). My understanding is that you don't really do purees more finger food. Ask on the weaning board, I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice there - maybe this thread might be somewhere to start? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weaning/1319159-BLW-Banter-Thread

exoticfruits · 19/10/2011 19:09

I wouldn't worry-they slim down once they move. BLW is a nonsense-they eat when and what mother gives them!

bertie007 · 19/10/2011 18:56

Thanks Zen.
Nooka, the babyled weaning I don't know about. I might be laughed at now, but how can I give her her first puree without a spoon? If I put a tiny piece of something she could choke....

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ITryToBeZenBut · 19/10/2011 15:08

I wouldn't worry. My father was the chubbiest baby and toddler I've ever seen (couldn't believe it when my granny showed me a picture of him in his high-chair one time when visiting).

As an adult, he was a beanpole and couldn't put on weight.

My sister was the same

Absolutely nothing scientific in that but thoguht I'd share as reassurance

nooka · 19/10/2011 01:55

If you are concerned about that then babyled weaning really might put your mind at ease, as the baby regulates what they'd like to eat (basically you put an array of things in front of them and they eat what they like with no spoon feeding involved).

bertie007 · 18/10/2011 21:14

Thanks everyone. I shall try not to worry. Starting solids in the next couple of weeks so we shall see. I think she'll be a tall girl like most of the females in the family. I do feel a bit unsure as to how much formula milk she's taken so far as she had extremely bad colic up till 3 months and we thought that she was hungry as she would down loads of milk and at one point I was told we were giving her too much. I was convinced she was hungry but later (always too late) told that a collicky baby gets comfort from sucking the bottle and is ok for a while and 'then' gets stomach ache a short time later! I'd never have fed her as much if i'd have known this but she was so distraught I genuinely thought that we must have been starving her as she seemed so much happier after a bottle .... for a few minutes.... so hope I haven't already set up a bad feeding habit for life as I'd feel eternally bad about that.

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