Chubby Babies: Cute or Dangerous?by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 20 Oct 2009 02:50 AM My daughter was a chunk as a baby. And by chunk, I mean move over Butterball, there's a new big bird in town. Just look at her:
(Count the rolls: My daughter at 6 months.) Much of her girth can be attributed to the fact that during the first six months of her life she was connected to my breasts 24/7. (She was connected 18/7 until she was about 16 months old.) My little plumpy was an eating machine... and she had the figure to prove it. At six months she was in the 95th percentile for weight. (I thought for sure she would crack the 99th percentile given her sumo wrestler appetite.) Still, despite resembling a pint-sized Michelin Man, she was healthy, happy and incredibly cute. At least that's what others told me. Perhaps, "cute" was code for "Dang, your kid is big!," but I would have never known by the way complete strangers would run over to comment on my daughter's "adorably chubby legs" and her "dreamy marshmallow cheeks."
(My daughter's marshmallow cheeks! YUM!) For whatever reason, no one ever suggested that my baby needed to slim down. (Save for two ignorant female gawkers I was forced to sit next to during a 4th of July celebration in 2004, but their venom was simply displaced anger and a desperate need for control.) Personally, I would never comment on the size of someone else's infant. Unfortunately, not everyone subscribes to the same philosophy. Just ask the Lange family of Colorado. Bernie and Kelli Lange are the proud parents of a strapping 4-month-old son named Alex. The boy weighed 8 and 1/4 pounds when he was born, but thanks to a healthy appetite for breast milk, Alex now weighs about 18 pounds and measures some 25 inches long, which puts him in the 99th percentile for both height and weight. I see Alex's stats and think: Healthy eater. However, the Lange's insurance company sees the same numbers and thinks: Obese. According to news reports, the Lange's new insurance provider (the family switched providers a month ago) told Alex's parents that their baby was "too fat" for coverage. Bernie and Kelli say they were flabbergasted that their seemingly healthy baby could be denied coverage because of his size. "I could understand if we could control what he's eating. But he's 4 months old. We can't put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill," Bernie joked. "There is just something absurd about denying an infant." According to Alex's dad his son's denial falls in line with the insurance company's common practice of denying claims based on pre-existing conditions. Apparently, Alex's pre-existing condition is his chunkiness. Long story short, after the Lange's story got picked up by the national media, Alex's parents received word that their insurance provider would cover their baby boy. Ah, the power of bad press. I think the entire story is pretty pathetic. Some babies are chubbier than others. Hence the term "baby fat." It's not like Alex's parents feed him BBQ potato chips and pizza for dinner every night. The kid is 100 percent breastfed. What do you make of the big baby brouhaha? Do you think chubby babies cute OR are their eating habits dangerous? By the way, my roly-poly cutie is now an energetic 5-year-old, who barely cracks the 40th percentile for weight.
(Chubby and cute!) Related Articles: Spare Your Children-Stay Away From Licorice Kids, Parents, Fast Food and NON-Melting Ice Cream Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantparenting tags User Comments  Cat-Mom-of-3 (180) 21 Oct 2009 07:50 AMWhat a cute and healthy looking baby your little one was! I think breast fed infants are the healthiest all their lives. My son, now 20, was also the fattest baby at the 95th percentile during the breastfeeding months. Once he started getting mobile he quickly thinned out and is now so tall and lean I worry about him getting enough food! The story is the same with my 2 other kids. We know that brestfeeding is always the best choice for infants and it should always be incouraged not discouraged! The insurance company should know this! Crazy story! drdad (503) 21 Oct 2009 06:55 PMI would think that with the brain and nervous system growing so fast that being on the well-fed side is being on the safe side.  Michele Cheplic (37339) 23 Oct 2009 04:07 AMCatMom, I'm pro breastfeeding regardless of how much I aged having a 20-pound kid attached to my boob for nearly two years straight. Michele Cheplic (37339) 23 Oct 2009 04:09 AMdrdad, I'm not sure insurance companies and common sense often go hand-in-hand. Community Tags breastfed babies, breastfeeding, chubby baby, fat babies, healthy babies Discuss this article
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