A newborn delivered in Longview, Texas has been reported to weigh 16 pounds, more than double the weight of an average newborn baby.
The Christian Post reports that the parents of baby JaMichael Johnson, Janet Johnson and Michael Brown, were told that JaMichael was not expected to weigh more than 12 to 13 pounds.
Dr. John Kirk, who delivered the baby, told ABC, “He was much larger than expected. Both his mother and father are large people.”
JaMichael is reportedly a larger baby because his mother was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, which usually contributes to the size of the baby. It’s a form of diabetes that develops during pregnancy, mostly to overweight women. The diabetes usually goes away after the birth of the child.
Michael Brown, father to JaMichael, stands at 6 feet 7 inches, and knew that his child was going to be a little larger than average. JaMichael measured the size of a three to 6-month-old baby: two feet long, with a 17 inch chest, and 15 inch head. The Christian Post reported that Brown said, “We may finally have a star football player in the family, or maybe a basketball player. I’m just proud of him.”
Currently, JaMichael is still in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, where he is being fed through a feeding tube. The doctors want to regulate his blood sugar, since babies similar to JaMichael’s size have a risk of low blood sugar.
JaMichael is a large baby, but not the largest. The Guinness World Records named Anna Bates from Canada, mom to the largest baby. Bates’s baby reportedly weighed in at 23 pounds in 1879.
