An 10-month-old Indian baby girl reportedly weighs a shocking 41 pounds, the equivalent of a 6-year-old girl, making her one of the heaviest babies in the world her age.
Baby Aliya was a healthy nine pounds when she was born to Shabana and Mohammad Saleem in a remote village in Jharkhand state, according to Britain's Daily Star. But at four months, Aliya began gaining weight uncontrollably, consuming three times the food for a child her age.
Her parents, who earn less than $5 a day on the dad's tailor job, can barely afford to take care of her.
"We have to buy her clothes every two weeks because the old ones get too tight," Shabana Saleem, 25, told The Sun.
Another obstacle for the parents is finding medical care for their daughter, who had an older sister who also rapidly gained weight. But she died before she turned 2, according to the Daily Star. Shabana and Mohammad also have a five-year-old son, but he is of normal size.
Doctors believe that because the Saleems had a previous child with the same condition, this means Aliya's size could be due to genetics.
"It is probably a genetic condition that is changing her hormones so she isn't able to regulate them," Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a Pennsylvania-based physician, told Yahoo! Parenting.
"The fact that she has a healthy size brother indicates that Aliya's size isn't due to something that the family is doing."
A consultant in the capital Delhi, Dr. Krishan Cough, also thinks the issue is hormonal.
"But we need to conduct some tests on her before making a proper diagnosis," he said according to the Daily Star.
Whatever her condition, Aliya has the love and support of neighbors and other kids in the village.
"Everybody in the village loves her," her mother said. "Kids come and play with her. But very few can lift her."
