My question is this: why are not the pediatricians and other healthcare providers providing this service where the baby has a medical home and an ongoing record? One of the big problems with scales is when you weigh baby on different scales and get different results, causing mom needless anxiety or occasionally unjustified confidence. This is not just about liability, but is about responsibility also.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Brooks
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 6:32 AM
Subject: Re: weight checks
Trepidation is expressed over potential legal or clinical ramifications of having babies come into a hospital for a weight check, without a formal means of charting or providing immediate lactation care.
Look. We have got to stop being scared of helping families by offering them simple pieces of information.
What is the proposed alternative? NOT to offer a place for a reliable weight check (versus those parents who sneak the baby onto the scale at the post office or grocery), for fear we'll get sued?
Is anyone fretting about the blood pressure cuffs at the drug store? Heck no. They are even SOLD in the medical supplies aisle. And there are no medical charts there; no cardiologists at the ready to advise the person whose numbers are too high.
What about those quickie blood sugar checks they do for diabetes risk, at the annual hospital health fair? Anyone freaking out that dietitians and nephrologists are not around the corner?
What about those hearing and eyesight checks our kids all get in kindergarten? Are we worried about lawsuits if we can't whisk the child who can't see that Big E straight into the opthamologist's chair?
This is a SIMPLE WEIGHT CHECK. What is the first thing we tell families, before they discharge the hospital, to assure that BFg is going well?
"Check the baby's weight." And now we are going to turn them away from a safe place to do that, for fear that (gasp!) the screening might actually work?
Let me suggest instead:
(1) Prepare a two-part carbonless form -- on the hosital's letterhead. Have a place to put today's date and weight (and whether baby was clothed), the baby's date of birth and birth weight, and the baby's current age, adjusted if need be. Put down the parent's name and contact information. Indicate who did the weighing, and leave a few blank lines for that person to scribble any pertinent notes.
(2) Have a standard paragraph at the bottom that says something like: "This weighing does not replace a thorough assessment by your primary healthcare providers, or an IBCLC, if you have any health or lactation concerns.
Please show this paper to your doctors when you next see them." If you are really on your game, have the form ALSO include the contact information for community-based BFg care they can access (WIC, LLL, IBCLCs, etc). That demonstrates a necessary element of BFHI *and* the Surgeon General's Call to Support BFg
(3) Give the family one part of the two-part form
(4) Yes, keep a log of who comes in. It can be a notebook with all the second parts of the two-part form.
--
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
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