A 10-month old baby named Aliya Saleem in India was born nine pounds, but she then rapidly gained weight. In the report, she is now 41 pounds which is as heavy as an average six-year-old girl. Her family and doctors fear for her health because one of her siblings died at age one-and-a-half due to similar weight gain condition.
She is now one of the heaviest children in the world for her age as reported by Mail Online.
The girl's mother Shabana Parveen, 25, said, "A few months after her birth, she starting gaining weight. We had to buy her a new pair of clothes every two weeks because the old ones become too tight for her." However, since the family cannot afford medical services and care for Aliya, they fear of serious health complications her weight might pose on her.
Subsequently, her father, Mohammad Saleem, 28, said, "We have tried our best, but we could only afford to take her to the local hospital. The doctors in the village could not tell us clearly what she is suffering from. We took Aliya to a doctor in Ranchi. After the check up the doctor suggested that we go to another city, but we couldn't afford that so we didn't take her."
Aliya's normal food intake is three times more than a normal child as she binges on curry and biscuits. This has posed strain on the family's finances as her father, works as a tailor and earns roughly four dollars a day.
The normal weight gain of babies of her age is 18 pounds and for her to weigh approximately 41 pounds may pose serious health complications. To get to the bottom of her baffling condition, her parents brought her to Fortis Hospital for evaluation.
According to Dr. Krishan Chugh, Head of Pediatrics told Daily Mail, "This is the heaviest baby at ten months of age that I have seen. This could be case of morbid obesity or even a hormonal imbalance. But we need to conduct some tests on her before making a proper diagnosis. The treatment depends on the diagnosis that we make."
He added, "There are some disorders that can be treated. As far as the reversal of this weight gain is concerned, that would depend on when we find a cause for it."
Aside from financial constraints to her non-stop binging on food, her giant weight poses problems for her parents who struggle to hold her in their lap for a long time. Mrs. Parveen feels burdened to do household chores and take care of Aliya at the same time because she cannot sit on her own due to her large frame.
At night, Aliya would wake up suddenly and burst out crying because she cannot breathe well. Aliya has an older brother, five-year old Ali, who cannot attend school due to their financial constraints. Their older daughter, Simran, died at age one-and-a-half due to the same condition. She also gained weight rapidly that her body was not able to cope properly.