With my first baby I did the "done thing" and had her weighed regularly... drove me nuts. I always got a lecture about "not enough weight gain according to the charts"... she was only on the "5th percentile" and all that rubbish. She was happy and healthy, weeing and pooing lots and sleeping well enough though.... I was BFing. But my MCHN was still not happy so referred us to a paed. DH came along. Now he isn't a big man and the paed took one look at DH, one look at me, and one look at our DD and said "what's wrong? She looks fine. She looks like Dad and will probably never be a big baby get out of here". Ok, well, great, relief but that was about $100 later!!!!
So with my next two babies I didn't bother with the weigh ins much. They were healthy, they fed well and they slept well. I trusted my mumma instincts.
ETA: Just to add, I believe weigh ins have a place.... but it's like fetal monitoring, it has its place but I don't think it should be routine. I think it's lazy. Health professionals need to find the time to actually LOOK at the child and ask the right questions... not just rely on numerical data to assess health. Oh but no, my MCHN would put me through in about 10 minutes... just enough to time for a weigh in and some quick questions... wrong wrong wrong.
Last edited by Bathsheba; August 11th, 2010 at 04:41 PM.
I only got DD weighed at her checkups, so our 6 week post natal checkup, then when she had her first lot of needles (at 10-12 weeks), 6 month checkup, I did have a checkup at 8 months, then last one was at 12 months only a few weeks ago.
I think if you weigh them too often you get all caught up in weight gains etc and just stress yourself out..especially if you were comparing them all the time like the mum's in your MG!
HB, it's the same at our mother's group. It drives me nuts. The comparison doesn't stop with the firstborns either. Most of us are onto our second and they are still comparing. WIth DS, I got into weighing him weekly because he started off gaining very little weight, very slowly so I was always paranoid. With DD, she has only been weighed at her CHN appointments. There were a couple of weeks at the 4-5 month where I weighed her weekly because she did stop gaining weight for a bit there. But now she is back on track and probably won't be weighed until her next CHN appointment next month. I know she is growing now because her clothes are becoming smaller on her!
With my first I used to go every week for 6 months, then fortnightly and then monthly by 12 months. With the rest I didn't bother as much because I just couldn't be bothered LOL. Probably would have been once a month. With DS2 though I went every 2 weeks for a bit and then monthly. By the time you have #4 you probably don't need to go as much, but I like the MCHN and didn't mind just going in for a chat and a catch up.
It would have been lovely to have had a chat about other things instead of only about the weight thing! Thinking back there was soooo much more I needed to talk about other than my DDs weight. But when you know that there are 5 other women waiting behind you I guess you just allow yourself to be led by the nurse... and all she wanted to do was talk numbers If my baby had "failure to thrive" or any other weight-related issue there would have been other clues not JUST low weight. But I guess they must be told how to monitor child health... maybe MCHNs hands are tied and they have to do it that way?
With my first he was weighed every time we saw the CN. My second was weighed when he was born and then again when he was 3 weeks old but I didn't like my CN so after that he was weighed about once a year - didn't stop him growing lol.
Reply With Quote
If my baby had "failure to thrive" or any other weight-related issue there would have been other clues not JUST low weight. But I guess they must be told how to monitor child health... maybe MCHNs hands are tied and they have to do it that way? 
Bookmarks