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A baby who weighed nearly 15 pounds at birth is now so big that he's already eating oatmeal and bursting out of size 9-12 month clothing - at the age of just five months.
Alpha Stone Mitchell, 24 weeks old, was crowned Britain's third-largest newborn when he arrived via C-section on October 28, 2021, at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.
The tot is now a hefty 24 pounds and squeezing into size 9- to 12-month baby clothing despite not yet being 6 months old.
Mother Cherral Mitchell, 31, says her little boy is now so chunky and hungry that she is having to wean him off milk and start him on soft foods. He loves porridge and rusk biscuits; most babies are not ready to eat solids until they are at least 6 months old.
Mitchell, a mother of four, said: "Alpha was a whopper.
"We knew he was going to be a big boy as my bump was huge, but we didn't realize quite how big he would be until he was here.
"I'd had three babies before and with Alpha, it felt like we skipped the newborn stage altogether and went straight to him being three months old.
"He didn't fit into any newborn or 0-3 month baby grows; he went straight to 3-6 month and quickly grew out of them.
"Even now he's in 9-12 month clothing, it's a little tight - it won't be long before he's in the next size.
"And I just found he wasn't feeling full enough after drinking his milk so I've had to start weaning him early.
"Now he gobbles up porridge and he loves rusk biscuits too.
"He's a growing boy."
Alpha's considerable appetite leads Mom to feed him baby oatmeal first thing in the morning before he gets 7-ounce bottles of Aptamil baby milk every three hours and a whole baby rusk in the evening.
Mitchell, full-time mom to Rouge-Angel, 5; Lyon, 3; and Twyla-Bay, 1, with husband Tyson, 36, an electrical engineer, - said: "We just started introducing baby porridge (oatmeal) because he still seemed hungry in the morning.
"He's not quite 6 months yet, but it's not affecting his digestive system so it's fine.
"He also sleeps all night from his last bottle at 9 or 10 o'clock until he wakes at five or six, ready for his next one. He's a good baby."
None of Mitchell's other children were as big as their little brother when they were born.
Mitchell revealed: "None of my children weighed anywhere near 1.5 stone (14.5 pounds) at Alpha's age.
"And they only needed to be fed every four hours - he's definitely the greediest.
"Because Alpha is so long, he's not far off his 1-year-old sister's height so people actually say to me 'ah, you've got twins!'
"He doesn't even fit in his carrycot anymore because he's so long, so he sits in a car seat on the buggy instead."
Twyla-Bay is only 10 months older than her younger brother, but Alpha already weighs just under 11 pounds lighter than her.
Twyla-Bay and her two older siblings were delighted to welcome their baby brother when he returned from the hospital at the end of last year.
Mitchell said: "His siblings absolutely love Alpha.
"They always want to hold and feed him and even put his dummy in before I even get a chance to, so they're helping out a lot."
During her 30-week scan, it became clear that Mitchell was expecting a larger-than-usual baby, and at 36 weeks, her baby bump ballooned.
Doctors believed this was due to Mitchell's gestational diabetes diagnosis, a condition that caused Alpha to consume sugary amniotic fluids in the womb.
But despite doctors' predictions, Mitchell and husband Tyson could never have imagined their son would be born weighing so much.
Mitchell said: "When we first saw him, my first thought was he was not going to fit into any of the clothes I'd brought in the hospital bag."
"Tyson even had to go home to bring back some 3-6 month clothes for him.
"When he was first born, I suddenly thought 'oh wow, you are a big baby' and then started asking the midwives how big he was."
Weighing 14 pounds and 15 ounces, Alpha claimed the title of the U.K.'s third-largest newborn baby on record, closely following Guy Carr who measured 15 pounds, 8 ounces at his birth in 1992, and George King who tipped the scales at 15 pounds, 7 ounces in 2013.
After delivery, midwives started excitedly Googling the measurements of the U.K.'s heaviest newborn.
Mitchell recalled: "One of the anesthetists admitted to me that Alpha's birth was the first one she hadn't cried at because she was just so shocked by his size.
"Everyone kept laughing when his head came out. My husband Tyson was like: 'He's a chunky boy.'
"Tyson still calls Alpha his future Strongman, and already says he'll need to do some more weightlifting training to keep up with his son one day."
This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.
