"Obese" infant denied health insurance

I saw this article and had to write a quick note on it. Apparently a 17 lb 4 month old is being denied health insurance because of a preexisting condition - obesity. The child is in the 99th percentile for both height and weight, but the insurers look at the weight cut off only and won't accept a baby over 95th percentile - despite the fact that the child is solely nursed and totally healthy!

Can you believe that? The Dad joked that they don't have control over what he eats to put him on Atkins (and he's not yet walking to go on a treadmill!), but as soon as he goes on solids they'll start the slim fast. The mother (quite rightly!) said she won't withhold food to get him below this arbitrary number. I realize I'm coming off really opinionated here, so if there's another side of the story that I'm just not seeing (because I'm too busy seeing red!), please let me know your thoughts.

I know that insurers are "numbers" people and that they have to manage risk, which is based on a discrete set of numbers / rules, rather than personal experience or subjective input. But it seems like their numbers and rules should allow for exceptions on weight restrictions for INFANTS under 6 months or a year old - especially those that have not started solids yet! I don't know enough about how formula feeding 'works' to understand potential overfeeding issues there, but I know that you really can't overfeed a nursing baby. My daughter will simply stop eating when she is full - even if I continue to attempt to nurse her. Admittedly, it is possible to "force" too much expressed milk on her (I think one of our babysitters may have accidentally done this) - but she just spits it up if you do.

This just makes me so mad!

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