Meet The 16-Pound Baby Born In Texas
JaMichael Brown is one of the biggest babies on record. Learn more about his birth.
zlikovec / Shutterstock We've got to give Janet Johnson a round of applause for bringing her son, JaMichael Brown, into this world in 2011!
He was the largest baby ever to be born in Texas, weighing in at a whopping 16 pounds and measuring two feet long. In case you were wondering, we've got a few more interesting stats about this monumental birth.
Here are a few things to know about JaMichael Brown and his birth.
1. Brown weighed 16 pounds and was two feet long.
In medical terms, doctors and nurses call this "macrosomia." It literally means, "large of body." Brown is so large that he's one of the biggest babes on record... ever!
2. He didn't fit in his newborn clothes!
Like most expectant parents, Brown's mother, Janet, bought him plenty of new clothes for the day when he made his grand entrance into the world.
She said: "A lot of the stuff we bought him is too little." Whoops! It looks like Johnson will have to make another trip to the baby clothes store!
He has also been nicknamed "The Moose." Aw!
3. The average weight of newborn babies is 7 pounds and 6 ounces.
Johnson was warned by her doctors that her baby would be big, but Brown turned out to be more than double the weight of your average baby. This is why his birth had been so shocking and monumental.
4. Any baby over 9 pounds and 15 ounces is considered "much larger than average..."
If you needed us to put it in even more context, these stats show just how amazing this Texas baby's birth really was.
5. Brown is at a higher risk for health problems than smaller babies are.
Unfortunately, the parents and doctors of babies with macrosomia have to keep an eye on them for quite a while.
Brown was at risk of high blood sugar when he was born (as most babies with macrosomia usually are), and due to his birth size, will be prone to diabetes and obesity later in his life. His doctors placed him in neonatal intensive care after he was born so that they could continue to monitor his blood sugar.
While some women can be genetically predisposed to having larger babies, Johnson's doctors said that her diagnosis of gestational diabetes may have been a contributing factor to her son's larger size.
With gestational diabetes, insulin does not control a woman's blood sugar during her pregnancy.
A nurse who was present at Brown's birth said, "It's a beautiful baby, but for health reasons, we'd rather not see a baby this large. They can have a little harder time maintaining their blood sugar."
Jenna Birch is a freelance writer whose work has been featured in publications like Girls' Life Magazine, MSN Glo, The Grindstone, AND Magazine, Front Row View, and Wetpaint.com.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on July 18, 2011 and was updated with the latest information.