>All the mom pretty much weigh their babies constantly - and  I feel that for the moms of fat rolly-polly babies the scale is  fun, but those babies certainly don't need weight checks.<

Just to comment that one of the interesting things that has come up for me 
in thinking through what might be the effect of adopting the WHO growth 
charts here in the UK during the first few years (24 months appears to be 
the prefered option if they are adopted) is about the effects on mothers of 
plump babies.  Since the WHO are lower than the UK90 (our current chart) 
centiles after the first half of the first year, there are going to be more 
babies tracking in over the top centile -- what is going to be the effect?  
What are going to be the interventions, either for breastfed (partially, 
most likely in thecurrent UK reality, after 6 mo) or formula fed infants if 
they are identified as being in the risk group 'over the line'?  Reading 
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy convinced me that the whole issue of plump babies may 
well be hard-wired, so a clash could be unpleasant and difficult. 

Almost one hundred years ago Cran wrote:
“Many a young mother worries if her child has taken 10 or 15 grm more than 
she was told to give it, whilst another grieves because the figure demanded 
cannot be attained.  And so the weighing machine becomes an instrument of 
torture as much to the mother with plenty of milk as to the one whose 
lactation is poor” (p1659).
Cran DHD (1913). Breast feeding. The Lancet 2, 1659-1660.
(I found this reference in 'Money, Milk and Madness' and managed to track 
the whole thing down.) 

I am arguing (again, sorry) that our use of scales is casual and lax 
sometimes, and, although this is culturally sanctioned, we should really be 
careful.  After all, even when opium was used in all kinds of patent 
medications and was available for all to self-medicate (as mothers might 
weigh their own babies), in retrospect, we might admire medical 
practitioners who sought to use it only when required and as needed, rather 
than going along with the trend.  And, of course, opium still provides the 
base for useful modern medications. 

Magda Sachs
PhD; Breastfeeding Supporter, The Breastfeeding Network, UK 

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