JaMichael Brown is one big baby boy.
Baby Brown entered the world twice the size of an average newborn. He was so big the Texas hospital didn’t have diapers big enough to fit him. Some doctors believe he may be the largest baby born in Texas. Actually, baby Brown’s size can be compared to that of a three to six-month-old baby. Brown is 24 inches long and has a 17 inch chest.
According to ABC News, the Guinness World Records states ʺthe biggest baby on record weighed in at 23.12 pounds at birth back in 1879 in Canada.ʺ
Brown’s mother, Janet Jackson, suffered from gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. Gestational diabetes can cause a high birth weight in newborn babies.
ʺGestational diabetes is caused when a mother’s body produces a hormone and becomes resistant to its own insulin,ʺ said Dr. David Kendall, the chief scientific & medical officer of the American Diabetes Association.
ʺSometimes the infants are called “sugar babies” because they have been growing from high amounts of blood sugar,ʺ added Kendall.
Over the years, gestational diabetes seems to be increasing among pregnant mothers. A study published in the Diabetes Care Journal claims ʺthe number of cases doubled between 1994 to 2002.ʺ
More importantly, babies born with gestational diabetes can have several health issues. Some of those issues include: high birth weight, birth trauma, low blood sugar and poor lung development.
In an interview with ABC News, Dr. Ian Holzman, chief of newborn medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, N.Y., said, "A baby gets this large usually because a mother has poorly controlled diabetes and the baby is getting extra glucose calories during the pregnancy,"
Holtzman continued, "There is also a risk of low blood sugar in the baby after delivery because the baby's pancreas has been making extra insulin to deal with the extra sugar. Once the sugar spigot is turned off the insulin causes the baby's blood sugar to drop."
Also, babies with a high baby weight are usually born via Cesarean section so not to cause birth trauma.
There is also added risk to the mother’s with gestational diabetes. These mothers may be prone to high blood pressure and the possibility of developing type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Michael Brown, JaMichael's father, told the TODAY Show, ʺWe may finally have a star football player in the family or maybe basketball player.”
ʺI was just amazed when he came out, how big he was. I’m just proud of him … [we’re a] proud family, ʺ the happy father said in his interview with TODAY’s Ann Curry.
Baby Brown is expected to go home this week. His mother is doing fine and has already been released from the hospital.
For additional information on gestational diabetes, you can go to HERWriter, Denise DeWitt’s story at
https://www.empowher.com/diabetes/content/pregnant-women-risk-gestational-diabetes or you can visit EmpowHER’s gestational diabetes page at https://www.empowher.com/condition/gestational-diabetes.
Sources:
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/11/how-does-a-newborn-get-to-16-pounds/?npt=NP1
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43710841/ns/today-parenting_and_family/
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/16-pound-baby-boy-born-texas/story?id=14045164
Reviewed July 12, 2011
by Michele Blacksberg R.N.
Edited by Alison Stanton