Bay Area baby may be California's biggest

Sosefina Tagalu and Pava Otuhiva hold Sammisano Otuhiva, now 5 months old, at the family's home in Daly City. The boy weighs about 25 pounds and is 28 inches tall. Sosefina Tagalu and Pava Otuhiva hold Sammisano Otuhiva, now 5 months old, at the family's home in Daly City. The boy weighs about 25 pounds and is 28 inches tall. Photo: Mathew Sumner, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Mathew Sumner, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Bay Area baby may be California's biggest 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

Sammisano's parents knew he was a big one.

When he was born in August in San Francisco, the hospital's newborn unit didn't have diapers roomy enough to fit him, and the baby clothes he'd received as gifts were way too small.

But there are big babies, and then there is Sammisano Joshua Talai Otuhiva, who was more than 16 pounds.

Proud parents Sosefina Tagalu and Pavasio Otuhiva of Daly City are now stepping up to claim what may be rightfully theirs: the state record for birth weight.

The couple says they didn't realize just how extraordinary their boy was until a few weeks ago, when they read a newspaper article about another newborn being celebrated as California's weightiest: Andrew Jacob Cervantez of Hesperia (San Bernardino County).

"I'll be honest with you. I was hurt that the claim wasn't ours," said Otuhiva, 37. "I wanted to share our story."

And so they did. The parents waived their right to medical privacy under federal law to give a Chronicle reporter access to Sammisano's birth records.

Well, step aside, Andrew, who arrived at 15 pounds, 2 ounces. According to Kaiser Permanente, Sammisano was born Aug. 23 at the medical center in San Francisco at a whopping 16 pounds, 1.7 ounces.

"My friends and family told me I needed to set the record straight," said Tagalu, 39. "They said you have an amazing gift that nobody else has."

As you might imagine, making history didn't come easy.

The 5-foot-3 mom gained 110 pounds during pregnancy. She had a cesarean section, then embarked upon a long recovery. Her back still aches and her sciatic nerve flares up on occasion.

Now there's the additional challenge of trying to clothe, feed and bathe a 5-month-old who, at 25 pounds, carries the weight of an 18-month-old.

You won't find little Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags in the family's Daly City home, just stockpiles of economy sacks of size-large Huggies.

"You know, diapers only go up to size 6," Tagalu said at the small apartment, which, with two other sons ages 6 and 10, is noticeably brimming with oversize baby gear. "I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets bigger."

As she picked up Sammisano for bath time on a recent night, she pointed toward a baby bathtub in the living room.

"I can't use that tub anymore," she said. "I put him in the kitchen sink now."

There are other tricks to rearing a super-size child. Sammisano stands in a walker or sits in a car seat to feed because he's nearly too heavy to hold. And he eats solid food - as he has done for a couple of months - because his liquid diet was too scant.

Sizable mystery

Tagalu and Otuhiva are both strong, big-boned individuals themselves, and their ancestral lines trace to the Pacific islands, where large children aren't uncommon. She was born in American Samoa, and his family is from Tonga.

How a baby gets to be as big as Sammisano, though, is anyone's guess. Medical experts say genetics play a role in determining child size, as do the length of the pregnancy and the mother's health.

Diabetes, which Tagalu has, is one of the more common causes of big babies, as a mother's high blood sugar levels can stimulate growth of the fetus, said Dr. Carol A. Miller, a pediatrics professor at UCSF.

"But very often," she said, "we find that the baby is just constitutionally large, and not related to any identifiable problem in the mother or the baby."

Sammisano, who was born at full term and stayed at the hospital a few extra days - just for monitoring - is in perfect health today and in day care, his parents say.

Tagalu has been able to return to her job as a medical assistant at Glide, the San Francisco nonprofit that serves the needy and homeless. Otuhiva, meanwhile, works full time as a trade-show organizer.

For the books?

Sammisano's exact place in the record books is tough to pin down. Birth weights are not tracked by state health officials, and medical records of children are protected by privacy laws.

According to media reports, the biggest baby born in the U.S. last year - prior to Sammisano's emergence - was 14-pounder Joel Brandon Jr. of Utah.

When Andrew Jacob Cervantez arrived Jan. 16, his family sought to claim the state's all-time record, albeit briefly.

"My sister's been doing research," the mother, Vanessa Cervantez, told the Victorville Daily Press, "and she doesn't think a baby weighing 15 pounds has ever been born in California."

Guinness World Records bestows the honor of biggest baby to a child born to "Giantess" Anna Bates in Seville, Ohio, on Jan. 19, 1879. The boy weighed 23 pounds, 12 ounces - but died 11 hours after delivery.

U.S. newspapers have carried at least a few reports of newborns weighing around 16 pounds, which is a little more than twice the average weight of a baby.

"I don't think I've ever run across reports of a baby being larger than 15 or 16 pounds," Miller said.

Sammisano now measures 28 inches tall, not much shorter than his 6-year-old brother. He's alert, playful and likes guests. He only really cries, making a sound much like a cat meowing, when he's hungry, which is a lot, his parents say.

He also isn't crazy about being picked up.

"You try to cuddle him, put him to bed. He wants you to put him down," Tagalu said. "He knows he's big."