Font size is tiny when first typing in a form text field

In a form I recently created, the text typed into some of the text fields is really small—looks like about 4pt type. It gets larger once you click or tab away from that field, but starting out so small makes it difficult to see what you're typing (and more to the point, it is going to puzzle my client's users of the form). 

If I set the font size to a specific size, there's a limit to the number of characters, even though no limit is set in the properties, and a long book title (or text in other fields) will get cut off. The  properties for fields where this occurs are set for multi-line but not scrolling, and for auto font size.

Am I doing something wrong with the settings, or is there a way to avoid this tiny text while still allowing the text to wrap to two or more lines if necessary? The same thing occurs if I set it to scroll long text.  Some text fields are fine (with the exact same settings) whereas one of the fields has this tiny text problem.