Bodyshaming Leaner Babies

"He is cute, par thoda patla hai Na?” She said as casually as you would say to a shopkeeper, "Bhaiya, Chutte nahi hai to ek munch de do". I was about to punch her on her face but sometimes counting one to ten works! My Son has taught me ample patience in this one year. I get tempted to say, "What goes off your father?" but it’s wise to ignore.

My son was born at 41 weeks gestation. A perfectly healthy baby he was. He was 2.76kgs at birth. He is exclusively breastfed for the first six months of his life and now one year plus, he is still on breast milk along with solids. But people have some or the other thing to comment on his appearance, weight or color. It gives so much delight to people to talk about someone's appearance and make that a topic of the evening gossip. I was always a plump kid. I was bullied, got my cheeks pulled like a rubber band, was made fun of as my friends sang in a rhythm, "moti, moti, moti". I would weep in a corner and throughout my adolescence I tried to be what I am not. I envied people who had a great 'figure'. I was never confident of my body. It is only now when I have the maturity to understand, that I know these things are not worth fretting.

So can we afford to let our babies go through the same torment?

Body Shaming is so imbibed in us that very few times we actually think of challenging it. It is an act where someone makes you feel inferior about your body and outer appearance. It starts right from infancy when people start casually commenting on your baby's appearance. I mean, aren't all babies cute? Do they really require going through this to certify themselves as cute? Rather cute in a way which suits the society norms?

I have been thinking a lot, actually quite a lot before I started writing this. I was fat shamed, my son is being skinny shamed. No matter how you are, people will always have something to talk about. So this article is basically about body Shaming babies, especially the leaner ones. There's a lot of science when it comes to what kind of physique one has. Often people are not aware about them and they end up saying, "Saara khana tum hi kha jaati ho? Bacche ko kuch nahi deti?"

And then they look at your face expecting you to laugh as if they are some Russell Peter.



Getting to the anatomy of a leaner baby, let's have a look at what all plays a role in it.

• Birth weight - Yes, every mother wants a healthy baby but what exactly is 'healthy' depends on mother to mother. I had Gestational Diabetes. In this scenario, if proper care is not taken, there's a fair chance of having a macrosomic baby. I was on medication, on a balanced diet and regular exercise and trust me I never wanted my baby to grow so big that he will have to deal with obesity all his life. I took care of my regimen and to my surprise my boy was born a full term with a good weight.

A healthy weight gain is when the baby doubles up his birth weight by 6 months and triple by first year. Of couse it varies here and there, this is just a general guideline.

• Genetics - Believe it or not, each child has their unique set of genetic characteristics which he gets from his parents. This genes pre determines the size and shape of the baby. Some babies are meant to be Chubby while others are made to be lean. Along with genetics, they also have an inbuilt quality of regulating their hunger. Each child eats just the right amount that their body needs if not coerced, forced or tricked into eating. However less it seems to us, they take in the right amount that they need. Any kind of manipulation with this and they lose their ultimate gift of understanding their satiety signals and this is so harmful in the long run.

• Breast fed babies tend to be leaner - I am not saying this out of my whims and fancies. Research has proven this. A baby, who is exclusively breastfed on demand, knows how to regulate their hunger. There is no overfeeding in Breastfeeding. A baby will take only as much as they require. Once they are done, it is impossible to make them drink any more. Mothers who breastfeed, are usually worried about their milk supply which also leads to worries about baby's weight gain. Breastfed babies tends to gain weight faster in the first half of the year and then the gain slows down considerably in the second half of the year. As long as a baby has 6+ wet Nappies in 24 hours, moms should be rest assured that they are giving enough that their baby needs.

• Breastfed babies are also slow on taking solids. They are less fussy eaters, may go on tasting everything and anything but the quantity they eat will be very less initially because it's instinctive of them to know what's best for them. They will fill their tummy through breast milk and their nutritional requirements are too taken care of. Ours is a society which is obsessed by chubbiness. A baby should be Chubby is what we hear always, because that extra flab of fat will protect them when they fall. A leaner baby is often told to be underweight and especially when a doctor says this, it has a long lasting impact on the parents. Telling a mother, that your baby is underweight is plain and simple, CRUEL! Because this makes the mother feel that the baby is not fed properly, is being neglected and her needs are not met. Especially for a Breastfeeding mom, it makes her doubt her body. Many moms across the globe hear it every day, when the doctor points out a not so relevant growth chart. Apart from making the mother feel bad, over feeding the baby after a wrong assessment will only lead to health problems later in life. Some pointers to know if your baby is doing well,

- The baby is happy.

- Has good numbers of pee and poop diapers.

- Has been achieving all his developmental milestones

- A steady weight gain. If your baby is not losing a kilo in a week, there's no alarm that needs to ring.

- Don't force or trick the baby to eat. Let the baby regulate his own hunger.



A baby can actually be 'underweight' in rarest cases. A baby is said to be underweight if he falls in the bottom 5th percentile as compared to their height. From the age 0-2 years, the ideal weight is ascertained in proportion with baby's length. Some of the situations that might cause rapid and unhealthy weight loss may be,

- New born Jaundice or any other medical condition

- Hormonal or digestive problems

- Premature birth

- Food allergies which makes getting enough Nutrients a challenge.

- Wrong food habits, For example, excessive intake of water. A child, who is breastfed, needs only 40-50 ml of water till one year of age. Excessive water, soups, and juices anything which can make the child full and displace breast milk can cause weight loss.



Let’s get this straight. All fat babies are NOT healthy and all lean babies are NOT unhealthy. Our aim should be to raise a healthy baby in all sense. So these generalizations are absolutely ridiculous.



Body Shaming has gained popularity because people are obsessed with physical appearances all the time. What we don't realize is the harmful long term effects of it. It destroys person's confidence. One does not feel comfortable in his own skin. Extreme habits are developed. It has the potential to make an individual feel inferior and unlovable and develop insecurities. This has to stop! We have to stop telling people to fit into our standards of beauty. Ours is world, filled with double standards. Lean babies do not look cute to our eyes and chubby adults are made fun of!



We will have to warrant the change. It's time that we raise our voices when next time somebody body shames our child. We should teach our children that we all are created differently and these differences needs to be respected and celebrated. Body shaming is not cool at all. Stop your child when he refers to someone as mota and patla. Let's strive to make a world where people are respected for their differences. This begins right from infancy. It's our responsibility to make them humble and confident human beings.