While the average weight for an 8 month-old baby is 18-24lbs, Chahat Kumar has concerned doctors by tipping the scaled at a whopping 38lbs – the same as an average four-year-old.
The baby girl from Punjab, India was born an average size but started to gaining weight four months ago. And now she weighs in at 2.7 stones – the same as a child six times her age.
Dad Suraj Kumar, 23, said, “When Chahat was born, she was completely normal. Then, slowly we saw that her weight was shooting up. Her weight is increasing day by day.”
Before having Chahat, mom Reena, 21, revealed they had a baby boy who had passed away during childbirth. Now, they are worried about their daughter’s health.
Reena estimates that Chahat eats four times the amount of food of a normal-sized child her age, “She doesn’t eat like a normal kid. She keeps eating all the time. If we don’t give her anything to eat, she starts crying. She cries to go out but her weight is too much and we are not able to pick her up. So we only take her to nearby places.”
Her parents deny it’s their fault she has this condition.
“It’s not in our hands,” Suraj told the media. “I feel bad when some people laugh at her for being fat.”
What’s more concerning is the excessive weight is causing the baby to have breathing and sleeping issues.
Because Chahat also has abnormally hard skin, getting blood samples to analyse her condition is more difficult. The family also doesn’t have the resources to travel further for more advanced medical treatment.
Reena explained: “We don’t have enough money for her treatment but we do our best to make sure she gets well. But the problem is with her skin. Her skin is so hard that doctors have failed to take a sample from her body.”
The Kumar’s doctor, Vasudev Sharma said: “This is the first case I’ve seen in my life where a child’s weight has been shooting up so much four to five months after birth. But the blood test couldn’t be carried out because the fat on the baby’s body was too much, and because of that, the blood test wasn’t done properly. We have tried it many times. Her skin is so hard that we can’t ever diagnose her condition.”
The family had been referred to a Pediatric specialist at the Civil Hospital in Amritsar, but their tight financial situation made this impossible.
A good starting point would be to reduce the food the baby is consuming.
“She has to eat less,” Dr. Sharma said. “She eats like a 10-year-old kid.”
Her parents just hope they can find help so their daughter can lead a normal life.
“We want Chahat to be able to play like normal kids,” Reena told the Sun. “We don’t want her to have difficulties in the future. We want a good future for her.”
