“Super Tonio” is the name given to a new baby boy born February 1st, weighing 14.5 pounds in Cancun, Mexico. The baby has caused a sensation, with crowds gathering at the windows of a maternity unit trying to get a peek at the baby who is at least twice the size of most of the others there. Antonio Vasconcelos was, of no surprise to this blogger, born via c-section at Cancun’s Jesus Kumate Rodriguez hospital. The hospital’s director reports that the baby is healthy, despite high blood sugar and a slight blood infection, both of which are under control.
The baby is wearing diapers big enough for a six month-old, and demanding a whopping five ounces milk every three hours! Nurses in the hospital laughed and joked as they placed Super Tonio next to another newborn baby. Not only is he considerably larger than most babies, but measures in at 22 inches in length, giving this blogger the vision of a human basketball with arms.
“We haven’t found any abnormality in the child. . .” said the hospital’s director Narciso Perez Bravo. I’d say his size is pretty abnormal, but it’s a good thing the “little guy” is okay. Antonio’s mother, Teresa Alejandra Cruz, 23, and father, Luis Vasconcelos, 38, have a seven year old daughter who weighed 11.5 pounds at birth, so it appears that the couple just makes ‘em big.
A baby born in January 2005 in the city of Salvador, Brazil weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounces at birth. According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born to a healthy mother weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces, born in Aversa, Italy, in September 1955. That sounds positively impossible to this blogger, and I would shudder to think what the heaviest baby born to an UNhealthy mother was, if such a baby exists!
I’d like to take this opportunity to address a pregnancy health issue. Genes certainly may play a part, though I couldn’t find any information on the size of the parents, but I am willing to bet that they aren’t of giant proportion. After all, it is quite possible to have a normal-sized baby at birth grow into a very tall person. So I seriously have to wonder if the mother received ample prenatal care during her pregnancy. The baby himself has high blood sugar, which leads me to believe that the mother did during pregnancy as well. If a woman is striving to achieve a natural birth and healthy baby, a healthy pregnancy diet is the key.
At any rate, I feel a lot better about my own daughter’s weight now. She was born 8.5 pounds and 21 inches, and I’ve received my share of fat baby comments. I certainly had my share of a sweet tooth during my pregnancy, for which I am regrettable, but I had a wonderful birth and the weight did not affect my ability to deliver naturally at home. I suppose my eight-pounder is just a peanut now, compared to Super Tonio!
What was the weight of your biggest baby? How do you feel the baby’s weight affected the outcome of your delivery?
Pregnancy and childbirth in the news: Let’s Talk About The Four-Minute Delivery! and Let’s Talk About Pregnant Celebrities – Who’s Got Bump?
Check out who’s no longer pregnant, since delivering, here Celebrities And Their Babies—The Newest Additions