Overweight baby?

[Antonia3]

I know there have been similar threads to this, but just wanted to see if I am being stupid worrying about this. Had dd weighed today - 24lbs (she is 10 mths and quite long too). She has been formula fed since pretty much birth - could this be why? She eats well but not excessively, and is on approx 15-18 oz milk a day. Can a baby really be overweight?

Is 24 lbs so big? I thought 10kg (22lb) was about average at 1yo, so she only sounds little big. I've known a few babies who hit 18-23 lbs by 4 months old; now that's big. Besides, if your baby is long as well as heavy, then she sounds in proportion; she should be that heavy if she's that long.

Anyway, what are you going to do, starve her?

Nearly all adult obesity is related to lifestyle factors; fundamentally, how active/how much exercise a person gets. All these statistical correlations with baby fat or genes or anything else are trivial by correlation. Feed her healthy and live an active lifestyle so she grows up active, too. Don't worry about the baby fat.

I have no idea - but then I think ds last got weighed when he was about five months. I thought I'd be able to tell if he was healthy. By coincidence though I got some new electronic scales the other day (I KNOW I'm too fat ) and sat him on them. He's just 17months, not very tall and just over two stone - about 29lb - which doesn't sound a million miles from your dd as he hasn't grown a huge amount since he was one. He looks lovely and perfect to me. I suspect weighing our children can be a useful tool to spot failure to thrive but isn't much use for anything else and in fact causes a lot of unnecessary anxiety. You'd know if she was obese!

I know, it's that blooming centile chart. Think it makes you worry if baby not bang on average. She looks perfect to me - just the fact she is 98th centile made me wonder. Has anyone else developed amazing biceps since dd or ds came along? Mine are huge!

Baby clinics, they drive me up the wall, I refuse to take my two as most of my health visitors speak out of their bum. I took dd1 to be weighed when she was two and was told in no uncertain terms she was too tall and too fat (she is nearly 4 and in 5-6 years clothing because of her height, but they fall down because too big round the waist).

If I were you Antonia3 go with your gut feeling, after all no-one knows a child likes it's mother.

My oldest was like yours antonia, at one point she was putting on a pound a week sometimes more! She looked like a michelin baby. She was sent to see a dietician, then onto a growth clinic, both of which were a complete waste of time. Her diet was fine, and the clinic said all they would do was weigh her and measure her fat until the age of 7, then decide if anything needed to be done. I said in that case I will bring her back if I need to when she is 7 (she was about 18 months). By the time she was walking she toddled off a lot of her chubbiness (which I thought was gorgeous btw), and she is now just a very tall for her age almost 11 year old. Very slender too. I wouldn't worry at dd's age, if she is eating a drinking prperly, and not being fed on pop tarts ,wotsits and dr pepper, she will probably end up like every other lovely healthy baby. Those centile charts are a pain in the posterior aren't they?!

How long have they (centile charts) been in existence? Anyone know? Who wants to be average anyway...?!!

I was very proud when my dd was in the 98th centile! I never thought of her as overweight. Just incredibly bonny and gorgeous. Babies should be big and chubby IMO. Now she is moving around the weight is falling off her and she has moved down to the 50th centile and I am quite miffed that she is average. Is your dd on the go yet?
I think centile charts were introduced in the 1950s.

Not that I have a clue but if it makes you feel better I have a baby girl who is 6.5months and about 26 pounds (maybe more) - and she's very tall (as am I) and has been big since birth (breastfed) and I don't think she's overweight - my doctor always says she looks fine. I like to think they take what they need...

DD is just gearing up to move - crawling a bit, but still practising different styles! She is beautiful and healthy. I think chubby sprogs are lovely - like those Mabel Lucie Attwell (spelling?) characters.

Tall babies should weigh more shouldn't they? My DD is about 24Lb at 11 months but she is 95th%ile height and I think she looks lovely. Also in the last month since she has been more active she has hardly put on anything. The problem with those graphs is that they are straight lines and no baby puts on the same amount every month!

Antonia ... my DS was 25lbs when he was 10 months old ... he was ENORMOUS and I used to get quite sensitive about it when people used to say 'gosh he's a big boy isn't he?'
He was 10lbs when he was born, had put on a whole lb in a week and carried on putting on weight rapidly (apart from a small blip when he was a month old when he had to have an operation) ...
He is now 3 years and 3 months and is 36 lbs ... so in 2 years and 5 months he has put on less weight than he did in the first 10 months of life. In fact he has hardly put on much weight at all in the last 6 months ... he has just grown taller ...
Your DD sounds very similar to my DS and you shouldn't worry ... I would rather have a healthy solid toddler than a wispy one who would blow away in a puff of wind !!!!

My in-laws think my dd looks like Mabel Lucie Attwell!! Chubby and rosy cheeked. They have even framed a picture of one of the Mabel adverts for her bedroom.