A Washington mother has given birth to a baby boy weighing a whopping 14 pounds and 11 ounces.

Francisco Leon Ortiz, who was delivered by c-section at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen on December 2, was so large that his dad had to run out and buy new clothes for him because he didn't fit into any newborn clothes they had at the ready.

Large babies are often the result of gestational diabetes, but his mother, Yessica Ortiz Delgado, had no such issues through her pregnancy, said David Quigg, the hospital's director of public relations.

He added that her two other children were about 12 pounds each at birth so she expected another large baby - but doctors had thought Francisco would be 13 pounds at the most.

Shock: Yessica Ortiz Delgado looks at her son, Francisco Leon Diaz, who was born weighing a whopping 14 pounds and 11 ounces at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Washington last week

After seeing his son, the baby's father, Francisco Leon Diaz, had to go and buy new clothes for the boy because they did not have any big enough.

The hospital has spare clothing to give newborn babies, but none of that fitted Francisco either, Quigg said. Some of the nurses kindly went out and bought him a few items too.

Francisco was initially in the ICU but headed home on Tuesday. Both mother and son are doing well, but the newborn will have to visit another, less rural hospital for further check ups.

The Birth Center at Grays Harbor Community Hospital delivers around 550 babies a year, but the experience was new to them.

'We deliver babies of all sizes, but it is not every day that we deliver and care for a baby as large as Francisco,' hospital director Barbara Connett told the Grays Harbor Talk.

His birth came a day after Colorado resident Alisha Hernandez gave birth to daughter Mia Yasmin Garcia, who weighed 13 pounds, 13 ounces.

Early Christmas present: Baby Francisco, who was photographed at the hospital in Aberdeen, Washington when he was four days old, has now returned home with his mother and is doing well, staff said

On seeing the news reports, Quigg said that staff at Grays Harbor joked: 'We've got a baby bigger than that here!'

Newborns weight 7.5 pounds on average at birth - but baby Francisco is not the largest ever born.

The largest baby ever recorded was born in Canada to mother Anna Bates in 1879, a boy weighing 23 pounds 12 ounces, but he died 11 hours later.

In 2005, a Brazilian woman gave birth to a 17lb baby boy named Admilton dos Santos.

He was mother Francisca's fifth child and it is thought that his size was caused by gestational diabetes.