They say to eat your fruit and vegetables to make you big and strong. But one baby has gone viral on social media for his rapid growth. Ten-month-old Henrí Bandeira de Mello Barbosa Xavier is already the size of a two-year-old.
Measuring 14 kilos and 79 centimeters, Henrí has attracted support online, with admirers calling him a “very cute baby”. His mother, Alessandra Barbosa Xavier, said he was so big that an ultrasound conducted two days before his birth “hadn’t shown his size”.
She said: “I was in labour for 24 hours until the contractions became incredibly strong and I started to faint. The doctor recommended a C-section because of the fainting, and I asked for one.
“When Henrí came out, everyone said that explained why he wasn’t being born. He was really big, and the ultrasound done two days before hadn’t shown his size.”
(Image: Instagram/alexavierdj)
Born in Juiz de Fora on December 19, 2023, Henrí weighed 4.2kg and measured 51 cm. At one month old, he weighed 5.8 kg and measured 57.5cm.
In a social media video, Ms Xavier said at two months old, her son already reached 6.9kg and 62.5cm. At six months old, he weighed 11.63kg and measured 71.5cm. An average 15 month-old baby’s height and weight, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is 72cm.
Ms Xavier said she wanted to experience a natural birth despite his weight being recorded as 3.4kg. She travelled with her family from Três Rios to Juiz de Fora, and was admitted with contractions every three minutes.
His weight and height attracted attention for Ms Xavier. She said experienced “embarrassing situations” when strangers and even family members stopping her on the street and discovered how old her baby is.
“My grandmother is terrified,” she said. “She tells me that I can’t give him breast milk when he’s hungry, that I need to distract him and even make him cry so I can feed the baby every three hours properly.”
Despite the prejudiced speeches, she says she had a lot of support on social media, with people thinking Henrí was a very cute baby and defending him.
One of the biggest challenges for Henrí’s parents is carrying him around and putting him to sleep. The family, she said, recently took a trip to Europe and had to carry the baby in baby carriers.
The family lives in Rio Grande do Sul, but continues to have monthly checkups with a paediatrician in Juiz de Fora. Ms Xavier says her son crawls all over the house and loves to walk outside.
“He doesn’t have access to screens, so he loves to crawl around everywhere and make a mess. My son loves to hit objects around the house, thinking that everything is a drum,” she said.
Although there is an international WHO standard, paediatric neonatologist Mariângela Ribeiro Silva Duarte said some children grow taller because of their genetic potential – or through children of tall parents. Henrí’s father is 1.82 m tall, while his mother is 1.56 m tall.
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