Big may not necessarily be good for newborns

Star: PETALING JAYA: Parents may be proud of their record-sized newborn babies but they should be watchful because big does not necessarily mean good.
While some newborn big babies are healthy, Kuala Lumpur Hospital paediatrician and consultant geneticist Dr Choy Yew Sing said, many tend to have health, learning or behavioural problems. He advises parents to send their babies for follow-up examinations by paediatricians.
“It’s best that they see a geneticist to identify why the baby is big, but there is a lack of geneticists in Malaysia,” he said.
“Some parents are big, so their babies may be born big and without problems. That is good news. But if there are problems, the geneticist will advice accordingly so that there is early intervention.
“If the problems are detected when the children are seven, it would be too late to help them,” he said.
He said big babies were full term newborns weighing more than 4kg at birth but are not necessarily overweight.
Most bigger babies are the result of mothers being diabetic. Diabetes-prone babies usually have hair on their ears and tend to be chubby, Dr Choy said, adding that other causes included genetic or brain abnormalities.
Asked about the ratio of normal babies to big babies, and the percentage of big babies with size-related problems, Dr Choy said there was no genetics and neo-natal registry in Malaysia to record the numbers.
However, he said, it was estimated that 2.5% of all babies born were bigger than normal size and 3% of all births had genetic defects.
Lee Kah Choon, one of the biggest babies born in Malaysia was delivered on National Day in a private hospital. He weighed 5.6kg.