Who’s a big boy!
At just one year old, Zack is already nearly 3ft tall ... and he’s growing fast
THEY look as if they were born months apart.
At 2ft 10.5in, Zack Nelms towers over his playmate and is already wearing clothes designed for three-year-olds.
But he is just a day older than his 2ft 4in little friend Cerys Lamb – and was born on January 20 last year.
The toddler is among the tallest in Britain, stretching well ahead of the average 2ft 6in height for a boy his age. Cerys is nearly the average height for a girl, falling just an inch short of the 2ft 5in standard.
Zack’s mother Rhian James, 28, said: ‘Everyone always presumes he is older.
‘Often people talk to him and ask his name expecting him to answer, but he just stares at them because he doesn’t have a clue what they’re
‘Midwife weighed him twice’
on about.’ Miss James and Zack’s father, Anthony Nelms, suspected they might have a large baby as they are both tall themselves – she is 6ft, while Mr Nelms, a 29-year- old bus driver, is 6ft 6in. They were also heavy babies, with Miss James weighing 10lb 2oz when she was born and Mr Nelms over 9lb.
But even they were surprised when after a 20-hour labour Zack tipped the scales at 12lb, nearly twice the average for a newborn boy.
First-time mother Miss James, from Llandaff, Cardiff, said: ‘The midwife took him off the scales, reset them and tried again, but they still showed 12lb – I was in disbelief.’
She breastfed Zack, but said she struggled to keep up with his appetite. She added that her bump size had been normal all the way through her pregnancy.
Quite how tall the 13-month- old will end up remains to be seen. But the couple are bracing themselves for obstacles he might face if he follows in his father’s footsteps – as Mr Nelms has size 15 feet and struggles to find shoes. Miss James said: ‘Zack already wears clothes for three-yearolds, but grows out of them quickly.’
Popular wisdom says that sons are always taller than their mothers. However where there is no genetic abnormality, all children can expect to end up at least as tall as their shortest parent – so Zack is likely to be at least 6ft. Both his grandfathers are also over 6ft tall.
The couple were delighted to discover that Miss James was pregnant with Zack after losing their first baby just before Christmas 2013.
Miss James has already thought about expanding the family.
‘People say your second baby is often bigger, but I don’t believe I could have one bigger than 12lb,’ she said. ‘I would do it – as long as I knew I could have an epidural.’