Magda and Heather bought up some important points about practices
being influenced by culture. In the UK, for example, the overuse of
test weighing has led to the virtual elimination of that practice: it
is now seen as being out-of-date and even damaging.

Speaking as an ex-pat Brit living in the USA, I can certainly see both
sides. Even in the USA, there are many people who have witnessed this
first-hand. It used to be common here, too, for a single test-weighing
(no digital scales then!) to be done on babies who were considered not
to be gaining fast enough. Critics mention that before and after
weighing was more likely to be useful if done for every feeding during
a 24 hour period; that the scales were not necessarily accurate to
begin with; that the same scales, recalibrated for each session,
should be used for that time-frame; that the mother's nervousness
about the testing could delay or inhibit her let-down; that the baby
might pick up on the mother's nervousness and not nurse well..... the
list goes on and on, all valid points.

There is also another side to this.
We now have electronic digital scales, which are much more accurate
than the older kind. We now recognise the difficulty in
differentiating the swallowing of saliva and swallowing milk. We now
also recognise that there are, indeed, mothers who are not, for
whatever reason, producing enough milk. They truly do want to have
their suspicions confirmed so that they can then move on to the
important work of  increasing their supply. Yes, they COULD just count
diapers, etc., and that is certainly the first thing to check. In our
tech-crazy world, however, more and more people want hard facts, and
test-weighing is a way to provide that. Many mothers with serious
supply problems do find it reassuring to be able to point to figures
and charts when calculating how much they need to pump and/or
supplement.

Do most mothers need to test-weigh? Of course not. Test-weighing is
simply one more useful tool to have available when needed.

You may be interested to read an article about this in the
July/August/September 2006 issue  of Leaven, the quarterly journal for
LLL Leaders:
  "Is weighing baby to measure milk intake a good idea?" by Sue
Iwinski, LLLL, IBCLC, RLC

This issue is available from LLLI and will be up on the website soon.


norma

Norma Ritter, LLLL, IBCLC, RLC
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