Chubby Kids Look Cute, But Are They Healthy?

My daughter was born 2.2 kgs. She was all bones  and looked  like an overgrown lizard or a frog. Believe me, the friends and the people in the relation who came to meet her saw her clucked disappointedly and said, “She is very weak!” It broke my heart to listen to such disparaging comments day by day. It seemed like an insult to me as a mother. Yes, so she was small, thin…unlike the pink squishy babies they showed in Baby ads. By the time she turned 4 months old, she was weighing a whopping 6.2 kgs, and quite difficult to lift. Yes, she had turned a beautiful chubby baby from the ads. Her paediatrician looked at me suspiciously everytime he weighed her and though he never said it aloud, suspected me of feeding my daughter with weight-gaining formulae. Well, it was all breastmilk, I knew. By the time she turned 9 months, my daughter was weighing 9 kgs. I still remember her doctor’s comment, “Pray she starts walking soon, or she will break your back from all that lifting!”

Thankfully for me, she started crawling and walking quite early. However, the downside was that she lost all her puppy fat from all that mindless walking and following me around. At 4.5 years, she weighs 17 kgs, and is quite lean. No, the puppy fat didn’t come back. But, she is strong as a stick and quite active. She drinks her milk (unsweetened and no milk-boosting powders for her), eats healthy food and sometimes has her share of processed and junk foods too. Well, my daughter’s days of chubbiness are long gone. However, I do enjoy looking at chubby babies and can’t resist pulling their soft round cheeks.

A few days when I read this, I was shocked, you would be too, the Mexico country is grappling with the issue of obesity in children. But, what really shook me was to learn India is the third most obese country after the US and China, and childhood obesity affects more than 15% of children. I mean who would associate obesity with an underdeveloped country like India where 270 million people live below the poverty line, and where emaciated kids and figures are not a rare sight. Doesn’t it appear some kind of a perverse joke? But, it’s true…sadly, true!

And this problem of overweight in children cannot be blamed on genetics alone. What about the poor lifestyle – relying on junk and processed food and a lack of physical activity? Parents like the idea of their infants being chubby or ‘golu molu’ as is the preferred phrase. So they feed them and feed them.

Don’t believe me? I will share with you a true incident that I have witnessed it myself with a very close relation of mine. So, this lady gave birth to a baby who was above the average weight of an Indian baby. But, he was extremely cute. As is the Indian mentality, his mother wanted him to remain chubby all the time. So, she started feeding him more than he required. At 9 months, I saw him eating a big bowl of porridge made of two large apples, wheat flour and sugar. I even passed a comment on his intake. And was at the receiving end of a scathing reply for all my genuine concern. You see, in India, it’s not considered appropriate to remark on a person’s diet, least of all a baby’s. So that was the end, I didn’t utter another word again.  

Now, the baby is 4 years old. Equally cute and equally overweight. The mother is now running from pillar to post trying his son to shed his weight. But, the boy needs calories for his ample body, and you just can’t expect him to reduce his appetite overnight. The mother regrets her earlier actions, but too little, too late. Though she has cut down on the junk food, she still believes in giving him two large glasses of bournvita and fresh juice of 2-3 oranges every day. And against his sugary intake, the boy’s physical activity is zero. How can you expect him to cut his flab?

Indians love chubby kids, however, what we do not realize is there is a host of ailments and diseases which comes with obesity, the most prominent ones being diabetes and hypertension.

• Feed your kids, but know their limit. Kids usually know when to stop, so do not push them beyond their point.
• If your kids ask for more food, ask them again if they are really hungry. Wait for a few minutes before giving them another roti or bread, usually you will see they will refuse to eat.
• Instead of giving them more quantity, concentrate on making their food nutrient-packed.

Chubby kids look cute, but not at the cost of their health!