awesome!...i love fat babies.

i hope it's okay, though. Neither baby, nor grandpa look so happy.

Caulcutta's youngest sumo wrestler ...

except that the poor kid must be suffering. Ouch.

AMMMAAAAA, PAKORA!!!!!

I couldn't resist the Bombay to Goa reference. Just couldn't.

That's just great. Germans grow muscular babies who are genetic freaks, we grow fatties.

I should probably leave this to MD, but the rare hormonal disorder sounds like congenital leptin deficiency to me. Yikes.

"I should probably leave this to MD, but the rare hormonal disorder sounds like congenital leptin deficiency to me. Yikes."

Wow- I think theres only been something like two people in the world who are actually leptin deficient. But it sure seems like he might be one of them.

wow.

sorry to be the unfunny guy in the party, but when did we decide that its cool and acceptable to make fun of small kids with genetic disorders?

Okay, now I'm going full-on nerd, but what's interesting about the two cases of congenital leptin deficiency Sonia is referring to (via Nature) is the following:

It should be pointed out that the control subjects in these studies were Caucasians from the UK, whereas the probands and their family members are all of Pakistani descent.

Well the good news is that if is indeed icongential leptin deficiency then there is a treatment. Recombinant leptin therapy has proven to work in the past.

I hope they can find a way to regulate the baby's hormones. On a sidenote, I noticed he's not wearing any underwear. Now if my kid was drinking 5 liters of milk, i'd make sure there was some type of barrier between my head and his urinator.

sorry to be the unfunny guy in the party, but when did we decide that its cool and acceptable to make fun of small kids with genetic disorders?

When we decided it was a juvenile and, for now, mostly harmless way of letting off some steam and backhandedly expressing our sympathetic unhappiness for this child.

he's ADORABLE!!!

but then my concern for his health wins out and I panic...

consumes five liters of milk and one kilogram of rice-flour every day

He's welcome in Wisconsin any day.

What a cutie! I love fat babies, too.

brimful

MD is a pathologist and has very little contact with Pediatrics or pediatric pathology and hasn't a clue unless she does a little cracking open of the books :)

Hormonal problem? But why is this child taking in so much milk and rice? Wouldn't any child eating that much a day at that age be, well, zaftig? Those are adult amounts of calories, no? Why are they feeding this child this much? Surely at this age you can control how much he/she eats? I know of syndromes where children eat everything around them, but that doesn't seem likely......

Dunno, will get back to you.

Tough to tell from a picture, so take this with a grain of salt, but are those shiny patches, stretch marks? Under the arm.....

MD, :) I know you're a pathologist- that was just my silly way of pointing out that I am not an MD (of any kind whatsoever) and am talking out of pure speculation.

I did once work on research connected to leptin deficiency though, and based on that, I'll just comment that kids that have this disorder are unable to control their appetite. So, unless his parents are really doting on him excessively, he may actually be demanding the inordinate amounts of food.

Brimful:

im curious what kind of research did you do with leptin deficiency? I forwarded the article to a friend of mine who works for one of the researchers that discovered letpin/leptin receptor and said there are a host of other hormones that can cause such obesity. Hard to tell without any other info.

Sonia, without getting too off-topic (actually, I'm already guilty as charged), I worked on developing inhibitors and agonists for some of the downstream receptors of leptin. E-mail if you want more nerdery! ;)

How fascinating, sonia and brimful. The things you learn on the internets....

So if these children demand inordinate amounts of food, do you treat them by restricting it or by appetite suppressants? Are there ways to treat this deficiency? I guess you are working on it, good researcher that you are.

My ability to do basis science research is very limited: I simply cannot do bench work. Respect the heck out of those of you who can....

Hey MD:

You treat it with recombinant leptin therapy. Basically just give the kid some leptin. Its worked in the past.

sonia: Thanks! Very cool. (The treatment and the distributed power of the interweb :) )