Indonesian newborn weighs in at 19.2 pounds
Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 | 10:56 AM ET
CBC News
Akbar Risuddin, center, at a hospital in Kisaran, North Sumatra, Indonesia on Friday. He weighed 19.2-pounds at birth, making him the country's biggest newborn.
(Andi Anshari/Associated Press) Crowds at an Indonesian hospital pushed Friday to get a peek at the country's heaviest-ever newborn, a boy named Akbar — or "the Great" in Arabic — who weighed in at a record 19.2 pounds.
Akbar Risuddin measured nearly 62 centimetres when he was born Monday at the Abdul Manan hospital in the northern town of Kisaran, on the island of Sumatra.
Both son and mother are doing fine, though the 40-minute caesarean delivery was complicated because of the newborn's unusual weight and size, father Muhammad Hasanuddin said.
"I hope I can afford to feed the baby enough, because he needs more milk than other babies."
The baby's extreme weight was the result of excessive glucose from his diabetic mother during pregnancy, Dr. Binsar Sitanggang said. "He is greedy and has a strong appetite, nursing almost nonstop."
The boy was the third child for Hasanuddin, 50, and mother Ani, 41, who like many Indonesians go by a single name. His two brothers weighed 11.6 pounds and 9.9 pounds at birth.
Guinness World Records says the heaviest baby ever was born in the United States in 1879, weighing 23.75 pounds However, it died 11 hours after birth. The book also cites 22.5-pound babies born in Italy in 1955 and in South Africa in 1982.
