weighing before and after feeding

[babyOcho]

I am in America at the mo and we went to a new mothers group this morning.

A few of the mums there talk of weighing their LO before and then after a feed to figure out how much milk they took.

I've never heard of this before, not even a whisper of it at our regular NCT BFing group that we go to at home.

Is it an American thing or did this whole practice just pass me by? I am fascinated, but not so much that I am going to start doing it with DD.

This was mentioned in one of the baby books I read and the author basically described it as a complete waste of time and likely to cause unnecessary anxiety if the weight doesn't increase after a feed as much as you expected.

I have to say I agree with the author of the book (Baby Love, by Robin Barker - brilliant and helpful section on bf advice btw). I'd much rather have a nice cuddle with my sleepy, satisfied lo after a feed than faff around weighing her.

If a baby is putting on weight, generally getting bigger and meeting milestones, then there isn't really anything to worry about.

TBH, I've never really bothered weighing dd other than at periodic hv check ups. If she was outgrowing her clothes that was good enough for me!

I know they did this to my aunty in germany 37 years ago. It resulted in her bottle feeding by the time my cousin was a week or 2 old and not even trying with the next

It's bollox.

babyOcho - routine 'test weighing' has not been done in the UK for at least a generation. It has no benefits at all, and has been shown to undermine breastfeeding, too.

It's at best pointless - no one knows how much a baby 'should' take at any particular feed, so why try to find out? It does not tell you the fat content of the milk, either.

Take a look at this study

pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/117/3/e387

This looked at the volume of milk taken and sampled it for its fat value with a range of babies aged 1-6 mths. Lo and behold - what did they find? A massive variation. Volumes taken ranged from zero (yes, zero!) to 240g at any one feed. These were all healthy, thriving babies.

In the US this pointless and misleading and bothersome process is done for no very good reason at all - maybe because there is a market in domestic baby scales???