Giant baby draws spectators

KISARAN, Indonesia - Spectators flocked to an Indonesian hospital Friday for a glimpse of the country’s largest ever recorded baby - a 19.2-pound (8.7 kilogram) boy born by caesarian section to a diabetic mother.

The delivery of Akbar Risuddin, or Risuddin the Great in Arabic, took 40 minutes and the operation was complicated because of his unusual weight and size. The mother and child were both in good condition, Dr. Binsar Sitanggang said Friday.

Crowds hoping to get a peek of the extraordinary Indonesian boy, who measured nearly 24 inches (62 centimeters) when he was born Monday, gathered at the Abdul Manan hospital in the town of Kisaran, in the strictly Islamic province of North Sumatra.

“He is greedy and has a strong appetite, nursing almost nonstop,” Dr. Sitanggang said.

Risuddin’s extreme weight was the result of excessive glucose from his mother during pregnancy, the doctor said.

Risuddin is the third child of father Muhammad Hasanuddin, 50, and mother Ani, 41, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name.

His two “little” brothers weighed 11.6 pounds (5.3 kilograms) and 9.9 pounds (4.5 kilograms) at birth.

The former Indonesian record holder was a 14.7-pound (6.7 kilogram) baby boy born on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta in 2007.

Guinness World Records cites the heaviest baby as being born in the US in 1879, weighing 23.75 pounds (10.4 kilograms). However, it died 11 hours after birth. The book also cites 22.5-pound (10.2-kilogram) babies born in Italy in 1955 and in South Africa in 1982. - AP