Carol, you say:  i'm NOT a scale person, but i use it when needed, and moms
really love to
weigh their babies when they come over for something else. i offer "free
weight checks" which is just a way for moms to come by for free if they need
something. support, to show off (i love that part), etc.

I know I know I am flogging (or is that weighing?) a dead horse here, but:

*  Do we know when a scale is needed?  Where is the protocol -- even some
rules of thumb -- laid out and backed by some research?

*  Panpanich and Garner in their Cochrane Library review (1999, issue four)
on Growth Monitoring in Children warn that the possible harms of routine
growth monitoring have never been studied and specificall ymention the
effects on parental confidence.  (This review is substantially the same as
the article in the Archives of Disease in Childhood,  Garner, Panpanich and
Logan,  Is routine growth monitoring effective?  a systematic review of
trials, (2000) ADC 82 197-201)  Their abstract concludes:  'Current policies
appear to be based on the opinion that investment in the activity had
worthwhile health benefits, adn does no harm.  No reliable evidence was
found to support or refute this.

Thus -- no point in routine monitoring, no protocol for circumstances which
suggest use of weighing in a non-routine way (interested if anyone knows of
one which is in any way definitive).

The UK recommendations coming out next year are going to say babies should
be weighed four times after the birth weight is taken in the first year of
life (intervals given).  There is already a fight breaking out in journals
over this one!

And this is without stepping into the literature about the application of
the current growth charts (different here in the UK than any in use in the
USA) to breastfed babies.

So come on, where is the protocol?  Where is the research that tells us when
weighing is indicated, what to look for and how to interpret it???  I would
dearly love to know, cos I have not found it.  What I have found is weighing
used as a weapon of control over women and their process of breastfeeding.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK

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