Is baby Reuben among biggest?

A six-month-old Pontesbury tot may have been one of the biggest babies in the country when he was born - bigger than some of the stars of a television show.

Last week Britain's Biggest Babies were the stars of an ITV programme looking into the theory that junk food eating mothers are producing a nation of junk food loving children, who are being born big and are staying big.

The show featured giant babies from around the country including Joe, 14lbs at birth, who now aged three has to wear clothes for eight-year-olds.

Another big baby was 11lb Courtney, who now aged one can devour an entire bag of chips in one sitting.

But Pontesbury baby Reuben Price could easily hold his own as one of the biggest babies in the country.

Proud mother Pippa Child, from Brookside, Pontesbury, said: "The programme made me think that my baby should maybe have got a mention when he was born on January 7. He weighed in at 12lb 7oz, which I'm sure is one of the biggest babies Shrewsbury has seen in a while.

"I'm not very big - I'm only 5ft3ins and I'm not really overweight, and my partner is quite slim too. Now he's 18-19lbs and tall, but not monstrous."Miss Child, 37, said all her children had been big babies, but she did not think any other exceptionally large babies had been born in her family, or that of her partner Keith Price, 47.

"My other son was 10lb 8oz and my two daughters were 9lb 1oz and 9lb 3oz, but I was a very little baby - only 6 to 7lb," she said.

The programme revealed that one in 20 newborns in the UK weighs over 9lbs and are classed as too big, which can be traumatic for both baby and mum. Miss Child admitted she had had a few problems with the birth.

"I was so huge when I was pregnant with Reuben though I knew he was going to be big," she said.

"When he was born he did get stuck because he was so big, but he was perfectly healthy. I needed a blood transfusion and the labour was bad. It took me a long time to recover."