The Holiday Pounds

The Spring Festival holiday has ended and what’s the most common thing posted on your friends WeChat walls? “Why did I eat so much over the holidays?” Everyone is angry with themselves once more as they reflect on their choices. It’s amazing how far we’ve come from the Tang Dynasty beauty standard of “丰腴”, which idealized the plump figure. Now it seems that every ounce of fat must be destroyed to be beautiful and even two weeks of holiday can undo all of our progress.

Contrary to these standards, there is one group among us for which growing “fatter” is the goal. It’s almost like a competition. Last year in June, we received 3 such competitors: the two month old Yue Yue, the one month old Xia Xia and the 20 day old Zhuo Zhuo. Even in the arms of their caregivers, from their wrinkled skin and tiny frames, you can see that they are in serious need of weight gain.

Yue 

Xia

Zhuo

 These three boys all suffer from the same condition: anal atresia. They have all become members of our ever growing “club” of children with this condition. As such, they cannot process normal formula and required colostomy bags. To complicate matters, they all have additional issues specific to them. So, these three have been fighting for their lives to get fatter. After several months, they have had some success, so we can say they too have put on the holiday pounds!

Yue Yue’s transformation:

Xia Xia’s transformation:

Zhuo Zhuo’s transformation:

These once frail bodies have become strong. They had no strength but now they can crawl, roll over, sit and even stand. They continuously make great progress! 

So instead of regretting how much you ate over the holidays, think of these little ones. Because of your love they were able to gain a few pounds and start to thrive!