19lb baby draws big crowds

INDONESIA’S heaviest-ever newborn drew curious crowds yesterday to a hospital where the boy named Akbar — or the Great in Arabic — came into the world at a record 19.2 pounds.

Akbar Risuddin was born to a diabetic mother in a 40-minute caesarean delivery complicated because of his unusual weight and size, Dr Binsar Sitanggang said.

The baby’s father Muhammad Hasanuddin said yesterday, “I’m very happy that my baby and his mother are in good health. “I hope I can afford to feed the baby enough, because he needs more milk than other babies.”

Crowds pushed to get a peek of the extraordinary boy, who measured nearly 24 inches when he was born on Monday, at the Abdul Manan hospital in the northern town of Kisaran on the island of Sumatra.

“This is fantastic,” Dewi Miranti, a mother from a nearby village, said as she peered through a window with about a hundred other people. “He looks very well and is cute.”

The baby’s extreme weight was the result of excessive glucose from his mother during pregnancy, Dr Sitanggang said.