To wonder why people are obsessed with a new baby's weight?

Strange question. When I think the poster is simply curious as to why people need to know. Some people don't want to share that and that's ok. Some people do and the enquirer either doesn't really care what the weight is or is going to form a judgement which can have negative implications.

There's only so much you can say about a newborn - whether it is sleeping, eating, smiling (or is it wind), whether they are alert and how much they weigh. Maybe at a push wet and dirty nappy frequency.

Just make something up if you're pissed off with people constantly asking OP. I understand what you mean - though I think it is just people asking for the sake of making conversation. Just say, 'he's putting on a good amount', or something like that, be nondescript. The old smile and nod, with as little actual info as possible.....

My ds 2 was huge. He was also quite boring, there wasn't a lot to say about him apart from 'yes he is big', I don't think it ever bothered me but it did mean I didn't have to ever get him weighed!

I'd rather talk about weight than how many dirty nappies I'd changed that day.

I also got the 'what are you feeding him? Gold top?' comments

I hate the term "failure to thrive" it sounds so damning for both the new parent and the newborn.

Gold Top Milk just refers to the fat content though - nothing to do with the quality, just a slightly different way of saying that if your baby's turning into a massive chubber it's because they are consuming plenty of fat-filled milk. I certainly wasn't offended when people said it to me, and think it's probably (like a lot of these things) just that if it's already a sensitive subject then almost any mention can seem like bragging/judging/competing. There really is naff all to say about babies apart from that they eat, sleep and poo so if you don't want to talk about any of those things then you probably need to head people off before they bring it up.

I think they are just trying to make conversation most of the time. I am always bemused by how offended people can get here with small talk. People really don't care that much how much the baby weighs. They are just trying to make small talk with a new mum who doesn't have anything to talk about except her new born baby.

Mylittle It all sounds a bit competitive to me, and the gossiping you've witnessed makes me feel cold, I'd hate that.

Is this percentile thing a relatively new thing? My parents never talk about me being on any percentile when I was a baby. It was just, 'purr weighed xlbs'.

It is hard when your baby isn't putting on weight as s/he should. I know people are just making conversation and I never took offence but it was hard to have the conversation over and over. I took to lying about his birthweight and/or age to strangers who asked just to avoid the inevitable 'gosh he's small isn't he?' Sounds silly but it hurt.

The one thing that did annoy (and slightly upset) me is people saying they have 'gold top milk' when their child is putting on weight. There wasn't anything wrong with my milk, just DS's tongue.

Trouble is what else can you ask..you know the sex, you've been told its healthy, the parents are thrilled...suppose you could ask how many stitches?

yanbu but people feel they have got to ask a lot about the baby , they are just trying to make polite chit chat .

Small babies are fairly dull to all but their parents and grandparents. No one really wants to know what they are up to (i.e. nothing) but they feel obliged to feign interest, hence questions about weight gain, sleeping and feeding - they want you to answer quickly and then talk about something more interesting.

Probably safer to ignore the baby altogether and stick to complimenting the buggy.
My sister could have written the book on 50 shades of poo, It never interested me as a subject of conversation.

For exactly the same reason, what else would you like people to say?

I think people get too obsessed with baby weight. I found it irritating too. Mine were all tiny but healthy so we had an onslaught of weight comments. It made me worry with my first but I hardly bothered weighing the next few kids as it's easy enough to see if a baby is happy past the first month.

Honestly? There's nothing else to talk about with a little baby. It's tedious, yes, but there are only so many things people who didn't give birth to your baby can say about him or her. Ah yes, there's another tiny human, that's a lovely sleepsuit, how much does he weigh now? How nice. And how is he sleeping? blah blah blah. Next it will be teeth. Oh does he have a tooth? How exciting! Will he manage to produce an entire mouthful of them? We're all on tenterhooks! Please report back!

etc. Don't miss the newborn days at all, in that regard. :)