Just got a call a couple of nights ago from a weeping mother whose baby had lost 10% of birth weight by day 3 and had stopped urinating.The baby had not urinated for 24 hours. She was told by a local ped practice that it is normal for babies to stop urinating and that the weight was probably a scale error in the office. I do not make it a practice to do house visits at 10 PM but in this case I did. Before and after weights showed that this baby was transfering NOTHING, that there had not been a scale error in the pediatricians office and were invaluable in helping me guide this woman through this very scary period. Baby nursed for seven minutes, caused extraordinary pain to the mother and then fell asleep. The mother was able to pump out some breast milk so the before and afters also told me that the baby was too fatigued and dehydrated to transfer what was there...Or perhaps that baby can't transfer at all...we will have to figure this out...again the scale will be invaluable. I would not want to guide her without being able to make my own assessments and evaluations.I can not imagine having to depend on a scale which the mom has already been told might be broken. 

I have NEVER found the scale to be a problem in my practice but rather an invaluable tool in providing guidance to breastfeeding women. Also, I would feel very guilty after a woman pays me my fee, to have to say to her....well there is this piece of information I am missing because I don't feel like lugging around a heavy piece of equipment, so now you have to go see someone else and get a second opinion and pay them as well. If I refer to another LC it is because there is something so extremely complicated that makes me believe I am in over my head, not a basic assessment that should be part of any intake evaluation. Having Cathy W.G   a few miles away is incredibly reassuring but I would never send somebody over there for a weight check!!!

Kathy Lilleskov RN IBCLC (surrounded by pediatricians in Brooklyn whose office scales are unreliable)

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