Jess Hardiman
While giving birth to a particularly large baby is something that many women would fear, one mum has found she’s got a bit of an upside as hers can now fit into his four-year-old brother’s clothes - also joking that she has a ‘bigger bicep’ as a result.
Salitza Richard, 31, was worried about the health of her son Xaylen Asher Richard as he grew very quickly in a short time period - fitting into 12-18 month clothes at just six months old.
She believes her son was delayed in walking until he was older, but jokes it’s only made her muscles even stronger after carrying him around for so long.
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Xaylen, now 19 months, is over the 100th percentile for his size and is continuing to grow at speed – even able to fit into his four-year-old brother Judah’s clothes.
Athlete trainer Salitza, from Dallas, Texas, said: “It was insane how fast he grew. He was above the 100 percentile every time we went to the doctor.
"It was hilarious the first time we went to the doctor when he had his two week check up. She asked us if were sure we had the right baby as he always looked older for his sage.
"I was concerned for his health as I wondered if it was healthy for baby to be as fat as he was and she said everything was perfect.
"I have an older son who was the complete opposite, he was always in the lower percentile. My older son Judah is four and Xaylen is just over a year old and they now wear the same size clothes.
"The rate he is growing is nuts. I had clothes from when Judah was younger he was wearing but I have to keep going up a size and switching so often.”
Salitza said people always assume Xaylen is a lot older than he is, saying he’s already being scouted for football teams.
She continued: “He's been so heavy, he now weighs 31 pounds and Judah currently weighs 32 pounds.
"He's been delayed on growing and walking as he's only just started walking a few days ago. Judah first started walking at 10 months and Xaylen started at 18 months, think it's due to his size everything has been delayed a few months.
"I definitely have a bigger bicep because of him, because he wasn’t walking until recently, I would dread going out to places as we would have to hold him, although I couldn't hold for long as it was too much.
"It's been game game changer now he is finally walking. He was so excited as well. It was crazy because it happened overnight, he started taking a few steps and now he's running a few days later.
"He also doesn’t really get hurt, he runs over Judah and Judah will be the one to cry. He's literally like a bowling ball.”
Salitza said Xaylen is ‘such a happy baby’ who is just ‘so chill and eats a lot’.
She explained that she’s as shocked as others about his size, saying she and her husband are ‘just rolling with it’.
"Once we were going on holiday and I got stopped and asked to buy him a ticket for a seat as they didn't believe that he was under one, let alone two-years-old which is the age for a baby to have a seat on a plane,” she said.
"We got questioned if he was too old to be on my lap too.
"My husband works with NFL athletes and people are already saying to start trialling him and get him on the team now. I also work with a lot of high schools and they say they want him as a player on their teams so he has already been scouted, it's hilarious.
"People will ask how we had such a big baby and we're so tiny. I am 5’4 and my husband is 5’9, we already know he will definitely be taller than us."