Weighing in on baby scales

Thanks for last link it will help me!

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As someone who volunteers to help breastfeeding moms, I can certainly see where having a baby scale at home could SERIOUSLY stress out some mothers. If they start obsessing about the numbers on the scale, the stress would be very likely to just make matters worse and harm their milk supply. If a baby really needs to be weighed daily, then they probably also need to be in a hospital.

Most doctor's offices will let you come in to have your baby weighed by the nurse without an appointment and without a charge. Just call ahead that morning and find out if there is a certain time of day that is best to drop in. If you're concerned about your child's weight gain, drop in to the doctor once a week on your way to the grocery store.

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I really don't see the point... other than to freak moms out. Like momma2mingbu said, if you need a weight check, pop by your pedi's office or LC's office.

Besides, getting a readout on the scale is only one small piece of the pie. Knowing how to apply the number (i.e as part of an assessment) is equally important; if not moreso.

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Both my kids are on the "low end" of the weight scale. But both dh and I were very thin kids as well. Dh's family is thin, his mom might be 90lbs, he has very skinny legs. I was 115 - 120 at 5'8" until about 6 yrs ago ( thanks to a sit on my butt very stressful job)
People need to remeber it is inherited were you a skinny kid? also it is a little bit bet to be a little thin then overweight

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wow, something else to ensure that our issues about weight start early and stay stressful.
there are too many moms stuck on the numbers game aready - do we really need to spend our money on such things?

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I don't own a scale for me because it would drive me to distraction, I would weigh myself every day and the number would influence my self-esteem.

Though I *was* going to get a baby scale because I was doing a home birth, I never did. I sometimes have looked for a cheap baby scale, but I always seem to talk myself out of it. I think it is just as well I don't have one.

Also as someone who was forced by the hospital to do the whole weigh the baby, nurse the baby, weigh the baby to see how much they've eaten (for a healthy, 41 week, baby who hadn't lost any weight but had GAINED it because they screwed up his IV and then had to wean him off it carefully because it was causing problems, but I digres). The whole weighing before and after each meal IS BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. If you have a preemie that needs to be weighed everyday because they can not afford to loose any weight at all, you should plan on making a trip to your local breasfeeding clinic or lactation consulatant (or better yet have a LC or midwife or anyone who is well trained in breastfeeding AND meshes well with you come to you) EVERY DAY. Because better than checking to see if they have lost weight -- which is arguable to late why not check and work on proper breastfeeding technique?

(Oh and moms of formula fed babies, just as an aside, y'all need to stop obsessing over how much your baby eats at each sitting. Sheesh breastfed babies get by just fine without ever knowing. If they are healthy, active and making enough diapers they are FINE)

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As I DO have a ton of experience with my own severely premature baby - having a scale is indeed a godsend.

When your babies are small and weak to begin with, there is no margin for error. A preemie who begins to lose weight can jump from healthy to deathly ill in no time at all. If you can see that weight loss, you KNOW that something is wrong and get to the doctor right away. This also REALLY saved us when we were trying to breastfeed and later when my son was vomiting up half of what he ate - by measuring his weight before and after feeds we were able to make sure he was getting enough to keep him healthy.

Reading all the comments about how it would only upset a mother really irritates me because I DID indeed have a preemie, and a very very tiny sick one at that. Having a scale actually saved his life once as we were able to see a decrease in weight that preceded normal symptoms of a deadly infection - we were able to take him to the doctor and have a thorough check done before he was really in danger. Had we waited for a real fever to appear, he would have likely been in the PICU.

If you don`t have any experience with preemies, don`t jump to conclusions about the usefulness of something. Preemies aren`t just "little" or "slow growers". There are real and very serious health issues involved.

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As a baby doctor I couldn't agree with you more. Accurate and consistent weights even under the watch of an experienced pediatric nurse can be challenging. Home scales almost always create stress and confusion for parents.

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I would have loooved this! I am a numbers person. I also love to document my children's growth for their baby book. My twins are now 2 and I can't tell you how many times I forgot what their measurments and weights were by the time I got home from the pedi's office. I either didn't write it down or lost the scrap of paper I wrote it on. It just gets so hectic at the end of the appointment with twins. Both screaming from all the shots. It's a lovely time, really! So I would have used the home scale a lot! I had one twin at each spectrum of the growth curve. Nearly off the charts in both directions. So I can relate to you in that respect, Nadine. However, I don't worry about the small twins weight. She's always been in the 0-10th percentile (it varies) and that's where she has stayed even today, at almost 25 months. So for her, being "underwieght" is normal. I have accepted that.

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I wouldn't need something else to worry about. Samantha's on the low end of the "percentiles" too! Nadine I hear you on the goldfish and yogurt!

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We bought a scale like this when our daughter was born so we could fill in her weight monthly in her baby book for the first year. I never wanted to go through the hassle of calibration of the scale and then having her scream about being laid on the scale more than once a month, so it worked just fine.

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23 pounds at 22 months sounds huge to me! My twin girls are 27 and 28 pounds at 40 months. They're perfectly healthy and well-fed, but never had very much body fat.

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I've been putting my daugher on a normal scale since she could sit up. After a while I found it annoying because I notice she isn't gaining weight and then I worry. She is 21 months old and weighs 19 lbs, and she has weighed 19 lbs since she was 11 months. She eats EVERYTHING that is put in front of her (except chicken noodle soup or anything like it, the FIRST thing she has EVER handed back to me and then smack my hand when I try to give it back). LOL!

STRESSFUL unless RECOMMENDED by a DOCTOR!!

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Definitely stressful--we have enough to worry about!

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