To not weight my baby every month?

[applesisapple5]

I've been recommended to weigh my baby every month, and fill in the WHO charts.
Why? What will it tell me about my baby's health, and how will that information affect how I care for my baby? If I don't weigh him what's going to happen?!

For what it's worth he's above the top percentile for weight and height, the Dr is happy that he's just a bigger baby, it's stressed me out and I just think I can tell myself if he's happy and healthy, his weight doesn't give me any additional information.
AIBU?

My first child was weighed every 2 weeks without fail, my last (number 5) twice in total

My eldest was prem and lost lots of weight after he was born, (4lbs 2 down to 2lbs 9) so i initially had him weighed regularly to make sure he was regaining the weight and growing at a good rate. I stopped when he hit age 18 months clothes at age 1.
My youngest was full term and a petite 6lbs 12. She was weighed at her 6 week check and possibly never again until she was in reception. She's in year 4 now and I've no idea what she weighs. She's real for her age, very leggy and looks slim but not skinny so I really don't care.

I don't think I ever got DS2 weighed. He's 9 now. I took DS1 every week!

First baby, weighed every month even after. I switched to formula and he started gaining weight, right up to his second birthday.

Second baby had the first one with the midwife and then no more. He was visibly chubby and I wasn’t worried in the slightest.

My friend has a baby bath that weighs the baby too!!!!! I never knew such things existed!!!!!
Round here HV's are in short supply tho x

I take mine to be weighed from time to time; it's been nice to see him go up the centiles as he's breastfed.

Regarding car seats @applesisapple5, my boy is tall and heavy, I asked at one place who said to get him fitted from 6/7 months into the larger car seats. If he's too small then try again later; the fit itself is important. On weight, just check if your car seat is 9kg or 13kg; 9kg you'd need to size up much younger than us so it might affect what seat works.

I think in the early weeks its to keep tabs on things like tongue tie.

My babys TT was picked up at 9 weeks because she dropped 3 centiles in a month after having a brilliant start.

I dont mind getting it done as i get to chatter with other mums and have a cuppa and get any random questions answered while there.

Mine were both weighed in the first couple of weeks then at the standard 6 week, 10 month (ish) and 2 year checks. I could see they were thriving. Now they’re 4 and 3 they love jumping on the bathroom scales but I don’t track anything.

@applesisapple5 please do your own research into car seats most of the ones sold only go on weight making the other info you've been given irrelevant as once they've hit the weight limit they absolutely can't use that seat

My babys TT was picked up at 9 weeks because she dropped 3 centiles in a month after having a brilliant start.

Same here, except it took from 7/8 weeks till 18 weeks to diagnose. I knew he was dropping weight, he was feeding 100% of the time, i was bits, knew there was something not right. I'd go along every week, dreading it, was told he was failing to thrive, taken off into side rooms and asked if I was feeding him, that I needed to do better, to give him formula because I obviously wasn't producing enough milk.

Not one fucker would look in his mouth, or at my shredded, bruised nipples.

I wonder what kind of speech impediment DC would have now of I hadn't insisted something was wrong. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything

I think monitoring every month or two isn't excessive when they're little - it's sometimes hard to tell if your kid is growing day to day or not and if they have tracked a line for ages then suddenly fall down the centiles then it could indicate a problem. Saying that as a parent I think you'd see some other symptoms as well if there was anything seriously wrong.
My daughter was 50th for 2 years, then she hopped on the scales at my mums and we realised she'd not put on any weight for 6 months amd dropped to thr 9the so the hv 's now want to keep a closer eye on her. I think she's just stretched out and gone skinny like me and my husband were as kids but I'm surprised I didn't see the change in her myself - only when you look back at old pictures you realise how much she changed.

Anyway I am a geek and love graphs so I secretly enjoy plotting their weight against the lines in their baby books! Saying that, I weigh myself at home then pick the baby up and weigh again and it's pretty accurate - within 100g of hv scales so I don't bother going to the clinic every month.

@eyupourkid that's awful!!!

Yeah I think the monthly weigh in is from the WHO. Probably some areas/HVs don't push it.
He's EBF, 'you can't overfeed a BF baby' seems to be his personal challenge

I'm definitely on it with the car seats don't worry, ours is up to 13kg and am going to Halfords for advice too. For me, weighing isn't doing anything apart from stressing me out, I'll play it by ear!

The HV, MW, and GP all recommended I have our baby weighed once a month. We're in England and she's always been a normal size with healthy weight gain.

I definitely think 'you do you' when it comes to parenting, you know your own baby and yourself, good grief weigh them twice a week if you want! But for me, I'll weigh up [fnar] the risks and benefits like anyone does. I think the risk of me stressing out outstrips the potential benefit of sighing monthly, as I can take see the benefits at all. I can feel and see that he's putting on weight. He's almost 5 months, and the GP said she was v happy with his weight and height even though he's crossed up two centiles and now off the chart for both. Chunker!

I never bothered with my FF babies(and won’t with the one due in Dec), just left it to the HVs when they would come for the big checks.

Lots of wet and dirty nappies and growing out of clothes is a perfectly fine indicator of growth, and IME this whole “overfed FF babies” thing is overblown - maybe if the parents are so slack they just shove a bottle in every time the kid cries, but most of us learn to troubleshoot.

I weighed my first three children weekly. However, one had failure to thrive and spent a lot of time in hospital poorly (he is 19 now and weighs about 9 stone at the most, he takes after his dad). My second child didn't gain weight quickly enough either but he got better when they found he was lactose intolerant. My third I weighed weekly because I thought I should after the first two had issues. They were all tiny like their dad and still are.

My two girls I rarely weighed because it was quite clear they were gaining weight well. I didn't see the need to weigh them monthly, let alone weekly. I would only weigh regularly if I thought there was a need to.

I was recommended to go each month as standard but didn't bother. I could see the baby was chubby/happy, I knew how much breastfeeding was happening, and lots of nappies!

No cuppa/baby play/social element at our weigh ins though, and very nice to know if we had any concerns we could go and ask etc.

@LivSmallDogs the comment about the possibility of over feeding ff babies wasntba dig.

Whichever feeding method used there can be difficulties, not all bf babies fail to thrive due to latch and tt difficulties but it does happen. Same for ff, not all ff babies are overfed but it does happen.