> So why does our first take show the baby at 5.08 kg and the second
> take show the same baby at 4.88 kg?

I have had this happen to me too Heather, often. (I do postnatal home
visits)
When I get a weight that I don't expect, or a loss of weight, I will recheck
it and often it varies by 10-20g, only seconds after the first weigh.
A healthy baby? U take the result with a grain of salt. (in fact if it was a
healthy baby, I wouldn't be rechecking it in the first place)
But a poor feeder or some other problem? I want to know the *accurate*
weight. I can see
this would be a problem with test weighing, if I relied on the scales the
hospital where I work provides for home visits. These scales also only weigh
to the 10 gms. I don't trust these scales to weigh so accurately. Yes they
are a vast improvement on the 'fishing scale's' as I call them, but not
enough to give me that much confidence in the result.
Also what if I test weighed today and then someone else came in, in a couple
of days time, and test weighed again using different scales (same brand, but
this midwife has taken a different work car than I so different scales, if
you get the picture)? I wouldn't trust this assessment either.
So it boils down to using accurate scales (that are well maintained,
calibrated, not dropped on the floor, or stood on or sat on by toddlers as
has happened to me!), same scales each time, same person doing weight each
time and so on. And the person doing the weight needs to be *skilled* enough
to interpret the information and look at the whole picture. (and 'boy' do I
see some staff who are 'challenged' when it comes to current practice, I can
just see them running for the formula right now!! LOL)

I think that test weighing could be a great source of information, but in
practice, where I work, I can see it would probably create more confusion
than clarification.

So, *one* day when all my kids are at school, and I have the freedom to do
private practice, and the finances to get a good set of scales, I would love
to do a little experiment!

Enough rambling/housework avoidance ;-)
Cheers
Karen Clements
IBCLC
Melb Aust

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