Dear all:

I'm grateful to Virginia's addition to specifics about how "test" weighing was used in 
Australia.  I have to say that is about the worst use of a scale I could ever envision.  It 
would be like weighing out some preconceived notion of the average meal for adults and 
making them eat it all.  The old clean your plate approach of my childhood.  I still 
remember my father catching me trying to sneak to the bathroom with the canned corn 
stuffed into the napkin to be thrown down the toilet.  Fortunately, my parents didn't 
"force" us to finish what was on the plate.  Nor did they control the volume of what we 
put on the plate.  We only had to take the bite of the vegetables offered and were 
rewarded by stars which would then turn into a toy if you got enough stars. My reward 
for cleaning my plate for a week was a purple haired donkey troll.  I did have to take a 
bite of the canned corn.  My father stopped that rule when my mother served creamed 
spinach from a can.  My father who could normally eat any vegetable was stymied by 
that one. 

I have not done a formal study, but my observations are consistent with Paula Meier's 
work with mothers of premature infants --- that test-weighing doesn't cause maternal 
anxiety at least in our two little sub-populations in the US.  Therefore, speculation about 
how mothers MIGHT feel are merely assumptions that cannot be extrapolated from our 
fears, NOR can they always be extrapolated from one population to another.  So what 
works in middle class populations in Manhattan may not work elsewhere.

As for the baby that takes a small feed in my groups --- this is always an opportunity to 
educate the whole group about feeding issues and get the whole group looking at the big 
picture.  

Sometimes, the baby is taking a small feeding because that's what the baby wants at that 
moment.  This babies are great because I can talk to all the mothers about the reasons 
for this.  For instance,
1) The baby was fed just before the group because the mom wanted to get to the group.  
Usually mom says "it was only for a few minutes".  In this case, the baby often ate a 
decent amount in just a few minutes even if it didn't fit the mothers idea of what a baby 
should drink.
2) The baby is older and starting to socialize.  This one is great, because the mothers of 
younger babies will get a dose of what is coming next --- the social feeder.  I always 
mention how disappointing it is to go out to dinner with my husband who scarfs his food 
down in 5 minutes while I spend the next 45 minutes trying to enjoy my meal while he 
watches. Social eating is a developmental leap.
3) The baby needs and wants small feeds and is thriving.  There are so many indicators 
and behaviors that you can train mothers to watch for on this one.
4)  The baby is deliberately taking a small feed because of some underlying condition 
such as severe reflux or a tongue tie that is compensated for by frequent feedings.

Sometimes the small feed really is because the baby isn't taking enough. The reasons for 
this in order of frequency are:

1) Mom was told to supplement with formula in the hospital and told NOT to pump for 2, 
3 or 6 weeks.
2) Mom read a book that talked about foremilk hindmilk imbalance or had someone 
advise her about it and started feeding from one side on a schedule of every three hours
3) Mom read a book that or got the idea that she should stretch out her feedings and is 
feeding less than 8 x/day.  There are currently some books that recommend as low as 4 
times a day and mothers who gasp when I explain this is really not healthy.
4) Mom was told by the "pediatrician to the stars" to sleep train her two month old by 
shutting the door and letting the baby cry it out for a 12 hour period.

This gives me an opportunity to talk about NORMAL infant feeding and NORMAL infant 
sleep patterns to the whole group.  Now, I have gotten to the point where I am so ticked 
off at the fact that the pediatrician (who I never mention by name) is recommending 
sleep training in a separate room during the peak SIDS risk, that I just flat out state the 
American Academy of Pediatric recommendations for cosleeping (even though they don't 
define what they recommend as such --- they are recommending it) and state the study 
findings that showed a 36% increase in risk of SIDS from sleeping in a separate room.  

I can't yet come up for a better substitute for test-weigh but given the history of real 
"testing" in Australia. And I thought Manhattan was bad with the preschools that test 2 
year old candidates by asking math questions!  Pre- and post-feeding weight checks is too 
unwieldy.

Best, Susan Burger

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