Xinhuanet.com reports on a "giant baby" born in China's Hubei Province a few days ago. The baby looks pretty big in the photos, but the photo captions state that the baby "weighs 5.5 kilograms and is 57 centimeters tall." That would be about 12 lbs and a little under 2' tall. I think the height is more unusual than the weight. From what I understand, babies weighing 12 lbs aren't that unusual, especially if the mother is diabetic.
Babycenter.com notes that:
For most women with gestational diabetes, the main worry is that too much glucose will end up in the baby's blood. When that happens, your baby's pancreas needs to produce more insulin to process the extra glucose. All this excess blood sugar and insulin can cause your baby to make more fat and put on extra weight, particularly in the upper body. This can lead to what's called macrosomia. A macrosomic baby may be too large to enter the birth canal.
Comments
Eeeeesh!
My mother gave birth to a toddler. ...She didn't have diabetes.
Now my brother is like 6'4" & 180 lbs...but 200 when his work isn't making him keep in shape.
Except for myself...my moms babies were all biggish. 11/9, 10/15 - lbs/oz.