Red books and weighing has changed

[Eglu]

My HV came to see me last week and I was pleasantly surprised when she pointed out that the growth charts in the red book are now the WHO ones for breastfed babies.

Also they now only weigh once a month unless there are specific issues, to stop a focus on good weeks/bad weeks.

It's a pity they can't just give you the chart you need when they issue the red book. I really didn't need all the girls charts.

Is there much difference? Are FF mothers now going to worry that their baby is too heavy and try to reduce it's milk intake?

Isn't that a good thing though is FF babies are gaining weight too quickly? You know you can take the charts you don't need out yourself! The HV took the girls charts out of mine.

Weighing once a month is the maximum - a healthy baby doesn't need weighing that often, just at checks and immunisations is fine.

This has been the case since May 2009 and yes, it is a welcome change.

cattleprod - this is a known issue and is being researched. It arises from about six months on when bf and ff babies start to diverge in growth.

By the time the babies are a year, formula fed babies show up as being overweight, and no one really knows what should be done about that apart from advising on possibly reducing milk intake and giving advice on type and amount of solid foods.

I agree Rita that the weighing thing is a good thing. Unless you have serious worries about your baby then weighing weekly is unnecessary.

I havent had ds weighed since he was 5 weeks and that was the last HV appointment. If you want to you can go to a clinic and do it yourself. I haven't bothered personally becasue ds is huge lovely and chunky

Our HV actively discourage weighing, which I understand, but it's a pain when so much is weight dependent, ie car seats, bath supports, clothes even! I suppose I could pop him on the scales but would prefer to have him weighed once a month or so.

it's always been once a month. however, over-zealous HV's often used to ask people to come more often

My DD was SGA so was weighed stupidly regularly weekly then fortnightly. DS was prem but had he not got a kidney problem that requires long term antibiotics (dosage is weight dependant) the advice was we don't need to see him till jabs and reviews, as it is he is weighed 6 weekly but they don't bother looking at his chart when they plot it, they just do it solely for dosage of antibiotic.

My HV did say that we could have DD weighed at other times to check for car seats etc.