Obsession over thin babies

D E Malone wrote:

Hear! Hear! for plump well fed, well nourished babies and toddlers. Not fat, fed on sugar-laden snacks and nutrition-less juices, but plump babies fed on breast milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, and yes! horrors! eggs, milk cheese and even meat.
Babies are not meant to be sexy or to be a sexual image for adults. Giving the kid too little formula or watering down your breast milk is sick and abusive. It can have lasting developmental affects on the child, ask any social worker who has seen the effects of starvation on a child either from abuse or because the child lives in a third world country without sufficient resources.
Don't worry that your child is "too plump;" children go through stages of gain and loss, growth and quiescence that are marvelous and totally outside of our control.
Marilyn and Lynette are correct; if you instill in your child good eating habits at an early age -- expose him to a wide variety of foods, and mirror those habits in your own eating, he will be fine. Mix in exercise -- like playing on the jungle gym, walking, riding the tricycle, playing tag (with you preferably)-- whatever -- and not only will your child be healthy but happy. Whatever body type he was blessed with is the one he will have. Just make it healthy.
(and stand by your husband, he sounds like a good man.)

Rachael wrote:

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I agree 100%..I also think that weight may also have something to do genes. The reason I say this is, my daughter was a breast baby. She was super fat. Fat to the point that at 6 months of age, we put her on low fat dairy milk. She was 26 pounds. She never had any sugar, and all her juice was all natural. I was so worried that she would be an obese adult. She is 23 now, has a child of her own, and at 5ft 7 inches, she weighs 125 pounds. She still eats healthy as she was raised to do so.
On the other hand, my son, he is an overweight teenager. Very overweight. When he was born, his pediatrician suggested that I should feed him formula instead of breast feeding, due to the fact that my daughter had been so grossly overweight. She felt it came from the fact that I had super rich milk and that it was impossible to measure the amount the baby was getting.(I didnt pump very often). Anyway, still I wanted him to have the benefits of breast milk for at least the first 6 weeks. I pumped so he would become use to a bottle. After the first six weeks, he started on the formula. He never became fat, but it was like he was constantly unsatisfied, and by the age of 6 months, he was downing an 8 ounce bottle, along with 2 jars of veggies and or fruit. The pediatrician said it was fine because he showed no signs of being overweight etc.
Well, he still eats healthy food. He was never fat, until he started going to school. I think the sitting in a desk all day, and the amount of food he consumed, he was not able to burn the calories as he did as a toddler. He has never had candy (still doesnt). He eats salads, broiled meats, whole grain pasta and breads. His idea of a good desert is no sugar added fruit salad that is super cold. He plays football and swims 3 times a week. I have taken him to the doctor, they have checked everything and say it is his eating habits. It makes me so angry, because I know that he doesnt over eat. Not only that, but he consumes much fewer calories that it would need to support his current weight.
Anyway, I often wonder if the formula changed something in his cells that regulate how calories are burned. You know, formula is really nothing like breast milk. I feel bad that he struggles with this problem, and that maybe I had something to do with it. I should have never allowed a doctor to tell me formula would be better than breast milk.

Laurette Taylor wrote:

I found this article to be very timely. I know several young women who have had similar problems trying to justify there child's plumpness. I beleive that a proper diet along with plenty of exercise is all that we need to worry about. If a child is still having a problem with weight after after puberty then I think it's necessary to take action.