My child is not a monster

Ok, this is another vent, totally different subject that the last one, but, again, I just need to get it out.

My child is big. I get it. He's tall, he's solid. He has chunky thighs. That's it though. Other than that, he's is very muscular and fit. He's 18 months old and 3 ft tall. He weighs 35 lbs. He's always been large, occasionally he's went through chunky phase, but I hardly think he qualifies for the book of records. He has no rolls on his stomach, no rolls on his arms. Hes very active, and distrubingly enough, has a set of 6 pack abs that defy his age. I am so so so sick of hearing "oh wow, he's huge!" "what do you feed him" and most recently " are you training him to be a ufc fighter or somthing?" I hear things like "oh, that kid would eat a brick" "are you sure you want another, you're not going to be able to afford to feed the one you have" "oh, it's gavin, of course he'll eat it"

I hear these things on a reagular basis, and its really hurtful. I've even been told that I should be looked into by cps because I must be mistreating my kid since he's so big. No, I do not mistreat my child. Obviously. He eats well, but not excessivly. A normal lunch or dinner for him is 3 chicken nuggets, half an apple and a couple spoonfulls of corn. He'll eat about 3/4 of a toasted chesse sandwich, or a hot dog. Those are his favorites. I mean really, maybe I'm just totally out of the loop on this parenting thing, but to me, that doesnt seem like he's eating excessivly. He eats what he would like, and when he is is full, reguardless of whether there is food left or not, he will tell me but signing "all done"

I can't tell you how many times I've actaully cried myself to sleep over this because yes, he's larger than average for his age, but he was born that way. He was born at 37 weeks, and measured 43 weeks for his weight/height. Every time people make these comments I don't think that they understand that they hurt me a lot deeper that just "oh ok". I know a lot of people think it's funny or a joke to goof around that my kid is big, but I'm just so tired of hearing it. I mean at 3 months people would ask me "What are you feeding him?!" "well, pizza, ice cream, the usual" really, what are they expecting? He's 3 months, he eats formula, ONLY. Even the ladies in the nursery at chruch occasionally comment "wow he's so big, you better watch out he'll eat you out of house and home"

IT's so hurtful, he's just a baby. He's bound to be teased and go through hard times later in life because of his size. Hopefully he'll slow down his growth and match up with other his own size soon, but he's bound to go through what everyone does at some point later down the road. Thankfully at this point he doesnt know what people are saying about him, but I do. At this point, they are criticizing me, not him. He's just a baby people, leave him alone. He's 100% healthy and he's not a giant. I mean if i have a 5 ft tall 3 year old, then ok, but he's just a couple inches taller than normal right now, so get over it.

I don't understand why everyone thinks its ok to say such mean and hurtful things to both nick and I. Recently, gavin and I made a trip down to the boat to visit daddy at work. We got there and of course while we were there we ran into several people that nick works with. Two nights later when nick got home, he said "well word got out about gavin" I asked what he meant and he said everyone at work jokes about gavins size and makes comments similar to the "ufc fighter" comment mentioned earlier. He's been called everythign from chunky, fatty, porker, bull, cow, to piggy. Why do people think its ok to call a baby these things. Luckily nick is able to jsut ignore it and he claims that while it does bother him, he can generally ignore it. If I had to work in that enviroment, I don't know how I'd deal. Even just writing those words about my son brought tears to my eyes. To me, he's perfect. I love my son with all my heart, and do think that we do an alright job with raising him, and according to our pediatrician, we do a good job with his nutritional needs. Unfortunatly, a lot of people don't understand how to make their "shut up" filter in their brain function properly.

So, I guess the point is, if you see a baby and are tempted to say "oh he's so chunky" or on the opposite end "she's so tiny, dont' you feed her enough" Think twice, becuase every word like that that you say cuts that mother or father deeper than you will ever know.