What if you have a giant baby in the future?
It was beautiful noon on 11 July 1999. I was delivered as a 4.3kg baby girl in Hospital Muar, Johor. Maybe you have no idea what I am talking about, but what I can tell you is, this number had shocked all the mothers in the hospital who also just delivered their newborn babies. How much was the “shock”? All the mothers and even the nurses, they pressed forward to take a look of this HUGE and GIANT baby!
Due to my extremely large size, my mom said she was having difficulty delivering me. She said she couldn’t push me out under her own effort until the doctor had no choice, but had to use HUGE FORCEPS to pull me out! I can’t even imagine how these “huge forceps” looked like and how the doctor could pull a baby’s head with it. However, due to the doctor’s effort, I was successfully delivered as a healthy baby. Yet, it had caused a mild deformation on my head where the forceps were to “clamp” me out. My mom even said that she was worried about the future appearance of her child as my head was in a really strange shape like the picture shown below.
As my head was of an unusual shape, my mom had tried several ways to make it normal again. One of the ways she used was to keep pressing my head gently night and day in order to “reshape” my head into it’s normal appearance. Her effort eventually paid off! After massaging for a long period of time, my head becomes the normal spherical shape like the others. It is because the baby’s skull bone is not yet fully developed so it’s very soft and can be easily “reshape”.
I’m not sure what’s the reasons behind that why I was such a giant baby. But, according to my mom, she said I am her first child and she was excited and looking forward to my birth. As a result, she kept taking in all the supplements and she even ate a lot during her pregnancy in order to nourish her baby with sufficient nutrients. She was successful in this case, as I was born as the biggest and heaviest baby in the hospital. It’s not easy to take care of a giant baby. Due to my huge body, the amount of milk that I need was much more than the other babies. My mom was tired from feeding me as I’m easily hungry and I will cry using my whole effort if the hunger didn’t get away.
Now, some of you may start questioning, how about my current size since I’m really large during my baby time? Well, apparently my body size was getting normal when I was growing up. Here is my recent photo👇🏻
It is a normal body size for a twenty-year-old girl. However, guess what? I experienced verbal bullying from my classmates when I was in primary school. My weight is actually much heavier than how I look from my body size. I think it is because my bone weighs heavier than others. During primary school, all the students in the class had to measure their heights and weights for the “Pendidikan Jasmani” or Physical Education subject.
I don’t know how was it, but some of my classmates successfully scanned through all the readings from my teacher’s records.
The “leader” from the gang shouted loudly in the class:
“Qiao Hui is the heaviest person in the class! Among all of us! Hahahaha!”
Right after he had shouted all the words, all of my classmates started to laugh at me. Maybe you can’t feel anything from the sentence, but those words stabbed my heart. At that moment, I feel like I’m a gorilla in class with that annoying weight reading. But after a few days, the person who made fun of me had apologised to me, and eventually I forgave him.
Until now, I could still remember that classmate’s name and even his face, but I think he has forgotten this story as it happened 10 years ago. What I’m trying to say is, the bullies may not remember how was the way they bully the others and they may not even remember who was the victim that they make fun to. However, for the victims who had experienced the bully, they will never forget the scars and hurts that they received from the bullies.
This little story of mine can be closely related to what is happening nowadays. The world nowadays has an aesthetic standard, where it says that girls should maintain their slim body shapes in order to look smart and pretty. Many girls who have their imperfect body shapes had received numerous types of bullying especially verbal bullying.
“You are fat!”
“Why are you eating so much like a pig?”
“Why don’t you stop eating? You are too fat!”
Words are the harshest weapons in the world. May be you found that out it was funny to bully others, however you may not realise that you are also one of the bullies. Before you do something to others, please take a second to think of the consequences that happen to them. If you are the one who is receiving all the words that you say or even the actions that you did, what will you feel? Will you be happy about that? Will you appreciate that? Put yourself in that position.
If you feel bad, unhappy, scared or annoying, the others will have similar feelings too. Not only verbal bullying but all types of bullying have to be stopped as they cause irreversible negative outcomes to the victims including impacts on mental health, substance use, and even suicide. Everyone in the world deserves love. Let’s spread the love to others in the world and stop bullying.
Although I’m a “legendary” huge baby, I am grateful to my mom as I successfully absorbed all the nutrients she had taken and developed into a healthy person. I never felt ashamed of my body weight and I will cherish every part of my body that had been given by my mother. All mothers suffered for 10 months and when they deliver a baby, there’s a saying that one of her legs stands on the floor while the other leg steps in the coffin. Mothers risk their lives in order to give birth to their child. Maybe I can’t imagine the pain borne by my mom, but what can I do is to respect her and give my love to her just like the way she does.
Thanks to my mother’s effort, I was born and named Qiao Hui, living with a grateful heart during these 20 years. I’m from Muar, Johor and currently studying Bachelor of Optometry in UCSI University. Some of you may have no idea what is optometry programme.
Let me explain to you what optometrists do after graduated from Bachelor of Optometry. Optometrists perform vision tests and analyze results. They also diagnose vision problems, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness and eye diseases, such as glaucoma. In addition, they prescribe eyeglasses, contact lenses, and medications and provide treatments such as vision therapy or low-vision rehabilitation. Optometrists also promote eye health through counseling.
That’s all about my small story, what about yours?