Sunday, February 9, 2014

Big babies

I am about 27 months here. Already too much to love
Recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, there was a study linking high birth weight, defined at 8.8 # or 8# 13 oz, with obesity during adolescence.  Previously it was thought that there was no link at all though being chunky during later childhood (above the age of 4) did not bode well for being a thin adult. Rate of obesity for big babies during the teenage years: 31%; for average sized babies: 19%; for tiny babies (less than 5.5#): 19%. Teenagers were measured as 8th graders. No corrections listed for height or race or sex.

This would not be good news for Steve and me or our children as all of us were defined as above as big babies yet none of us were even overweight as 8 th graders, not even me as at that point I had decided to do something about my chunky self, pictured in the post on a horse a few days previously, and was quite thin. We were all very tall though.

None of the grandbabies so far were considered 'big babies' at birth though Tessa and Allie were certainly close. By 4 months, all the babies excepting Oliver, even Danny the preemie who ended up the biggest, were in the 98%tile for height and weight. Julie recently looked at her baby book. Allie so far has surpassed her and Josh's growth at the same age. Will she be over 6 feet as an adult? I bet she will be close but I think we just have fast growers in our family. Even Shanna looked like she was on track for being over 6 feet but then she abruptly slowed down in her growth.
Below is Allie at 4 months and Julie at 6 months. Very similar though Allie has a wider face.



1 comment:

Holly said...

Hmmm...my kids were 10# and 11# at birth. Both are thin as adults!

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