Can a baby get too chubby?

[sleepysleepy19]

As title really - is it possible? My DD is 6 months and 18lb at last week’s weigh in, which takes her to the 75th centile. She started on the 25th at birth, crept to the 50th and is now heading upwards again. She is 25th for length; I am of Mediterranean descent so short and prone to weight gain.

She started weaning at 17 weeks due to reflux on paed advice. She took to it like a duck to water and her reflux has majorly improved. She’s now on three ‘meals’ a day (porridge for breakfast then textured purées for lunch and dinner) plus a mid-morning and mid-afternoon bottle where she is offered 6oz but usually takes about 4. Bedtime bottle goes down a treat - usually about 6oz - and then one overnight of around 3-4oz. Depending on what time this bottle occurs she may have a couple of ounces in the morning when she first wakes but this isn’t consistent.

Am I overfeeding her? At weigh in the HV gave me a load of information about healthy eating in babies and portion control. Maybe she looked at my body shape and thought we are passing on unhealthy habits! (I don’t think we are - my OH cooks everything from scratch, all fresh food for us and her)

I myself am not concerned so long as she’s healthy, however I know how hard it is for me to keep the weight off so I don’t want to set her up with bad habits....

She’s quite young for 3 meals a day. Are they actually meals or just a few spoonfuls?

About four or five baby spoonfuls per meal? A lot less than other weaned babies of her age that I know, yet they aren’t gaining the weight like she is....

Short answer is yes, a baby can get too chubby. Ask the HV directly.

I would really try to not get too concerned over this. I had 2 very chubby babies who both were quite small at birth but shot to 98th percentile within a few months and stayed there. With my 1st I worried about it so much! I had questions from midwives and HV. Was told about not giving too much formula/portion control etc etc and honestly it caused so much worry and a few issues around food in toddler hood and guess what... both have great appetites but are perfect sized and very healthy now. I wish I had not worried so much!

I’m going to ask the HV at the next weigh in, but I won’t be there for a few weeks and don’t want to be doing the wrong thing in the meantime.

If I’m allowed, this is a picture of her so you can see what I mean (face and privates blocked out). Can’t work out if this is normal baby chin or not!

Oh, she’s gorgeous! Look at that chubby baby body! I want to give her a cuddle. Lots of babies get chubby before they start moving and then thin out. If you’re worried discuss it with a HV though.

I have a HV friend who despairs at the amount of baby girls she sees that are underweight because the parents are concerned about their daughters growing Up to be overweight.

My 10 pound birth weight baby grew into a very large baby that was wearing 18 to 24 month clothes on his first birthday! And then grew into a very chunky toddler. (75-90 percentile) Somewhere between starting school and now (yr6) he slimmed down - he is now very skinny And is at the very bottom end of “healthy” range for his height and age.

Babies and children are very good at regulating their food intake and eating intuitively - they tend to eat when hungry and stop when they are full.

I wouldn’t worry for now, concentrate on healthy, balanced meals and avoid setting bad habits, for example, I have really strong sugar cravings after my meals because I was always given sweet puddings after dinner.

I’m sure she is absolutely gorgeous OP and just how she is meant to be!

She looks absolutely fine and healthy!

Omg I want a chubby baby right now. She’s adorable.

Omg I love chubby babies

3 out of 5 of my babies were just like her. Gained weight really fast and were really chubby. As soon as they were mobile though it fell off. I wouldn't be too worried about it tbh. She looks healthy to me.

Looks gorgeous

Short answer is yes, but once they move they will slim down, ask the hv for advice.

Perfect baby! Not too chubby at all, great gaining and she's 75 percentile so definitely not too chubby. I wouldn't give it a second thought, you're doing a great job x

I was a chubby baby. Three weetabixes a day at 12 months etc for breakfast. I was huge. The GP and paediatrician were never bothered. I slimmed out as soon as a I started moving apparently.

I'm now a size 6 petite woman. No weight issues at all. So don't fret, she looks gorgeous! Plus the baby photos have caused much mirth over the years when friends would come over to my parents house and gasp in horror at how much I'd changed

She looks perfect. Ds1 went from 50th to 75th centile and I had health visitors tutting at me saying they would have to keep an eye on it. He stuck at 75th so I think this was just his natural centile. He was a chubby baby but looked healthy and happy to me. He is a slim toddler now and evened out once he was walking. I now have ds2 who was born on 75th centile and went up to 91st. He is chubby too but no doubt he will slim down too. I’ve had the same comments this time from health visitors but I think it is ridiculous. He has a good appetite but stops when he is full. If I try to feed him less he gets hungry after a couple of hours and screams. I can hardly put him on a diet so I’m not sure what they expect me to do about it.

I think if you’re formula feeding you have to be more careful as at this age babies will still be getting a lot of nutrition from milk. Whereas if breastfeeding then it is more simple (can’t be overfed basically). So I’d look at guidelines as to how much formula would be recommended but I’m sure what you’re doing is fine.

With the solids I think babies are generally good at stopping eating when full up. I’ve done 3 meals a day since 6 months and I think it’s been a good way to establish routine at mealtimes.

Thing is most babies are weaned right around the time they start moving around and getting really active so as you've started early (with good reason!) she's not at that stretching stage yet! Don't panic. Though I would be trying to wean her off her overnight bottle and then her daytime bottles one at a time (apart from morning and bedtime) but that's more for your sake!

Oh my she's cute!

Dd was a chubby baby. In 6-9mth clothes at 4mths and 75+ percentile. One she started moving more and having less formula at around a yr old she dropped down to the 9th centile and has stayed there ever since and she’s nearly 11yrs now. I still plot her growth in the red book as we were worried about her dropping down the centiles so much that it became a habit.

Your baby is utterly adorable and at 6mths I’d just let her be.

Oh my goodness she's gorgeous! Babies will feed what they want. I don't think she's overweight at all

My mother kept telling me I had puppy fat up until I was about 20 😂😂

Wait til you see her mobilising and running around. She's beautiful OP!

Oh she is properly scrummy!

Dd went through a chubby phase right before crawling/walking. She slimmed out and is now a very petite 2.5 year old. I think the not moving, eating solids and growth spurts all add up to storing extra fat. But they lose it quickly when they get more active, so I wouldn’t worry at all at the moment.

She isn't that big really op, 75th centile is bigger than average but not anything I'd be concerned about. My dd was just under 25th at birth and shot to 99th by 5 months, she's now almost 4 and still on 95th centile for height and weight but is actually quite skinny.

And 3 meals sounds about right of you weaned from 17 weeks, I did the same for the same reasons and at 6 months she was having snacks as well as 3 meals and bottles. A baby weaned at 6 months will naturally have less as they are much earlier in the weaning process. They generally drop a bit when they are mobile anyway.

Your dd is gorgeous op 😍

She is pretty much the average weight of a 6 month old baby 🤷‍♀️

Just here to say that her being on the higher side of the percentile chart shouldn’t worry you unless the HV directly says something. She also doesn’t look to be very chunky despite what the scales are telling you.

My baby is around the 2nd percentile and has a cute little double chin similar despite having very little body fat elsewhere. And actually she looks only slightly smaller than your baby.

Yes they can. Our son was a cannonball then he started walking at 10 months, became underweight within a few months and remained underweight until he was 9 years old. 16 now, 6ft 1 and healthy weight.