In a message dated 8/12/98 7:58:51 PM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< Can someone share any information on obese, exclusively breastfed
 babies.  I am working with a mom who's 6 month old girl is 28 lbs. >>

First off, what is the baby's length?  This sent me to my son's baby book to
discover that at 27 weeks (breastmilk only) he was 29.5 inches long and 27
pounds.  "Obese"?  He was a chunky happy baby, and has grown into a strong
muscular boy.  What was baby's weight at birth?  What does her growth curve
look like?  In my son's case, he started out very average (19.5", 7'lbs 14 oz)
but ascended to the 150th or so percentile for height and weight quickly
(within 6 wks) and has stayed there for four yrs.

I wonder if some of this concern on the mother's part is not simply because
the baby is a girl..."fat" girls, even when they are the perfectly healthy,
cherubic, breastfed, infant ones, elicit a great deal of unwarranted concern
in the moms I deal with for  socio-cultural reasons.  However, I never got
much commentary about my son being extremely big other than the comments about
being "strapping" and "all boy", with their all too obvious positive
connotations.

I think I would dialogue with the mom in my best HRE style interaction,
Heather, and let her know that 1) some babies are bigger than others--somebody
has to make up the top and bottom few percentiles, and in a population of
millions these "minority" small and big children comprise a large number!  and
that 2) breastmilk is recommended to be a baby's primary source of nutrition
for the first year, with solids or supplements doing just that,
*supplementing* that superior source of nutrition.  My point being, what are
her options?  Breastfeed less?
<<she was nursing from both breasts a total of 20-25 minutes, every 3 hours
during day and sleeping 9 hours a night>>
So, it sounds as though she is already doing what I would consider to be
pretty minimal bf, for a six month old.  You are talking about a baby that is
this big on basically four nursings a day (if she stays up 12 hours).  Is mom
overweight?  Or very thin?  This might be something to consider in your
consulting.

Perhaps the doctors on board here have a different opine, but the numbers of
the situation seem like a non-issue to me....perhaps, of course, because I had
such a large baby.  Maybe just knowing that others' babies were the same and
turned out to be perfectly physically fit will help your mom.

Joy Berry-Parks
Anthropology Apprentice
LLLL, Arkansas
************************************************************************
Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism
of the universe. --Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
*************************************************************************