>the weighing practice in the UK
>muddies the usefulness of weight as an indicator of anything.


Adding to this bit of education, Magda (all you say is correct, of
course)...that weighing in the UK in clinics is hugely variable (as
you know!). Some health visitors (the community-based nurses who
staff UK well-baby clinics, attended by virtually all mothers) will
insist the baby is naked, some ask for the nappy to stay on, some
weigh the baby clothed or partially clothed. Most mothers are told
the weight verbally in imperial (pounds and ounces) and it is
recorded in the mother's book (a parent-held child-health record) in
metric. This too can mislead. It is not at all uncommon for clinical
advice about supplementing/starting solids to be made on the basis of
these haphazard weighing techniques alone : (

>GPs will have less training in baby
>stuff than a paed would

However....even the most uneducated-in-paeds ones will/should
recognise a frankly malnourished baby, as will/should most HVs.

Not that that helps support bf, necessarily.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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