>All the mom pretty much weigh their babies constantly - and I feel that for the moms of fat rolly-polly babies the scale is fun, but those babies certainly don't need weight checks.<
Just to comment that one of the interesting things that has come up for me
in thinking through what might be the effect of adopting the WHO growth
charts here in the UK during the first few years (24 months appears to be
the prefered option if they are adopted) is about the effects on mothers of
plump babies. Since the WHO are lower than the UK90 (our current chart)
centiles after the first half of the first year, there are going to be more
babies tracking in over the top centile -- what is going to be the effect?
What are going to be the interventions, either for breastfed (partially,
most likely in thecurrent UK reality, after 6 mo) or formula fed infants if
they are identified as being in the risk group 'over the line'? Reading
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy convinced me that the whole issue of plump babies may
well be hard-wired, so a clash could be unpleasant and difficult.
Almost one hundred years ago Cran wrote:
“Many a young mother worries if her child has taken 10 or 15 grm more than
she was told to give it, whilst another grieves because the figure demanded
cannot be attained. And so the weighing machine becomes an instrument of
torture as much to the mother with plenty of milk as to the one whose
lactation is poor” (p1659).
Cran DHD (1913). Breast feeding. The Lancet 2, 1659-1660.
(I found this reference in 'Money, Milk and Madness' and managed to track
the whole thing down.)
I am arguing (again, sorry) that our use of scales is casual and lax
sometimes, and, although this is culturally sanctioned, we should really be
careful. After all, even when opium was used in all kinds of patent
medications and was available for all to self-medicate (as mothers might
weigh their own babies), in retrospect, we might admire medical
practitioners who sought to use it only when required and as needed, rather
than going along with the trend. And, of course, opium still provides the
base for useful modern medications.
Magda Sachs
PhD; Breastfeeding Supporter, The Breastfeeding Network, UK
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