Since none of the people I see are going to acquire an electronic scale
accurate to within 5 grams as part of their equipment for parenthood, I
consider it vital to encourage them to watch the baby in order to know when
the baby is satisfied. 

They look puzzled sometimes, until I remind them that nobody has any trouble
knowing when a baby is dissatisfied.  If those signs are absent, you can
assume baby is satisfied.
Then I get more serious, and talk about falling asleep after a good feed,
filling diapers regularly, looking hungry before and happy or asleep after a
feed, hearing swallows, rhythmic suckling, all those signs.

Clocks are for knowing when your favorite TV show is on, or how long it is
until your partner gets home.  The baby couldn't care less about the clock
and if you don't believe me, try to convince a baby who thinks it's time to
eat, that the clock says she's mistaken.  This goes for trying to convince a
baby who is happily feeding on one side that the clock says it's time to
switch, too.  Breasts are even less interested in clocks than babies are, if
that is possible.

Scales are for abnormal situations.  We don't weigh our food before we eat
it, nor ourselves before and after we eat, unless we have PKU or are in
renal failure or the like, or are just obsessing.  Those are all abnormal
situations.  So, we might not always know whether we're really satiated or
whether that third helping of quiche is really necessary.  A pre- and post
quiche weight doesn't add any information that helps us figure it out
either.  Well, maybe the pre-quiche weight should tell us something, but we
have to eat too.  Telling a baby the number of grams or ounces she just took
doesn't convince an unsatisfied baby that she should be content, and a baby
who has taken 70 grams but actually wanted 72, will look like a baby who
hasn't been fed at all.  Thus, the number of grams doesn't tell us how much
more the baby will need to be happy either.  

The only person who knows how much the baby wants, is the baby.  That's why,
unless there is some major pathology present, you can just WATCH THE BABY
and you'll rarely go wrong.  You don't even have to remember anything, like
when you last fed them or how much they ate.  If the baby looks hungry,
feeding is a tried and true strategy to deal with it.  

I think IBLCE is interested in hearing documented reports of people holding
the IBCLC credential who are dispensing WRONG information.  If you know for
a fact that an IBCLC is advocating timed feeds rather than observing the
baby, you are a kind of accessory to the problem if you don't sound the
alarm.  Uncomfortable but true.  Write IBLCE today.  It may not stop the
practice but it may stop them being able to call themselves an IBCLC.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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