But why would you do a test weigh on a healthy gaining baby?

I will often do a naked weight to have for my records. Here babies are not usually seen by their doctor between discharge and one month of age. 

If I have a mother of a 2 week old baby call me with damaged nipples I will take a full history, watch a feed, observe the baby's oral anatomy, discuss what I observed and weigh the baby naked. 

Guiding the mother to improve the latch, note any tongue tie, give info on that, and then using the weight decide if baby needs supplimentation with expressed milk or if baby is transferring adequately despite poor positioning is usually how these types of calls go. 

On the rare occasion I do a pre and post feed weigh I make it very  clear to the mother that this is one snapshot of a feed that is out of the baby's normal routine and may not give us a clear picture of what is going on. If the mother insists she feels this would be helpful we will do one and book a follow up to see her again within a day or two to see how things are going. 

Clear communication with the mothers we work with can avoid a lot of the misunderstandings. I know that being in private practice I have the luxury of being with a client for 2+ hours if necessary to cover all of this at a pace that is comfortable for the mother. 

Tania Archbold BSc IBCLC. LLLL
Www.mothersnectar.ca
Ontario Canada 

On 2011-06-12, at 21:34, Nina Berry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Equally, if a perfectly healthy dyad - baby gaining well -  presents to someone with a scale with all the usual, culturally determined, anxiety about her baby 'not getting enough milk' and is subjected to what we call here, 'test weighing' the following may ensue.
> Anxious mother, sits down to feed a not very hungry baby.  Mum doesn't let down well to baby.  Test weigh show that bay is 'only transferring X mls'.  Mum freaks out. Exclusive breastfeeding is terminated.
> I hear that the scale is a useful tool for some of us.  What bothers me about it, is that we don't know how much breastmilk is enough in any given feed for any given dyad.  The only research we have tells us that the range of 'normal' is enormous.
> Nina Berry
> Australia 
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