Heather,

I must agree that birth weight can be a sign, but cannot be the only thing
we look at.  I have seen too many well fed babies whose mamas were scared by
the pediatrician because his scale and the hospital's scale were not
calibrated the same.  It can even happen from scale to scale in the same
hospital.  When my second was born after 6 pm in the evening I was told he
was 8# 15 oz, at the midnight shift change supposedly her weighed 9# 15 oz.
He nursed well but obviously he did not get 16 oz milk.  If the scales would
have gone the other way though, I am convinced that everyone would have gone
ballistic and tried to start supplementing.

Linda Pohl, IBCLC
Phoenix AZ

-----Original Message-----
From:   Lactation Information and Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Heather
Sent:   Wednesday, October 21, 1998 6:24 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        birthweight

There are also plenty of anecdotal accounts of labour ward scales being
innacurate - and when we're talking in ounces and half ounces and taking it
seriously, this matters. I have also come across the occasional case where
conversion from metric to imperial has been incorrect - which messes up
subsequent calculations.

So - what do you think? How much should we rely on birthweight as a
benchmark?