Double weighing of the newborn
Already at the hospital relatives and acquaintances, after congratulating the new parents on the newborn, instinctively ask 'How much does it weight? '. This question and others like it, such as 'But does it grow?' , 'How much should a baby eat?', Sometimes they make us anxious and force us to a excessive use of the scale.
Here we are, the birth went well and after a few days of hospitalization we returned home with our baby, luckily the milk was not long in coming and he latches on to the breast voraciously, eating often and falling asleep attached to our body. Blissful and peaceful.
We too are blissful and peaceful and begin to enjoy the new adventure of motherhood until the gossiping tongues of mom, mother-in-law, aunts and friends, on the umpteenth surprise visit, taking the baby and maybe hearing it scream, tell us that "maybe he doesn't eat enough".
Read also: Calculation of growth percentiles
We calmly answer that it is not possible, he was born with a good weight and is fine, and also the physiological decline, (i.e. the weight loss that occurs after birth due to the loss of vernix and subsequently to the emission of meconium. and feces and then with the fall of the umbilical stump) was not excessive and indeed is recovering it. We are calm but doubt is undermined. So we talk about it with the pediatrician and we discover that there is a way to control the feedings and the growth of the baby: double weighing.
If you are not tired enough from the fatigue of childbirth and you do not have signs of postpartum depression, in short, if you are really well and are looking for a source of malaise and bad mood, get a scale, that will be a double-edged sword that will turn the pleasure and joy of motherhood and breastfeeding into nightmares.
The double weighing generally it is used only in the nursery or during hospitalization to check if the baby is actually eating enough and if the mother's milk is sufficient and to calculate if he is recovering the weight of the physiological loss. Doing the double weighing at home means stressing the mother and baby: before and after each feeding, in fact, the baby must be weighed at each feeding; naturally the milk ingested by the baby will never be the same as the previous one or the next one, so it will be very difficult to estimate "how much" the right quantity is, given that we are talking about breastfeeding and therefore the child eats exactly what he feels is necessary.
The double weighing will cause a bad mood and in the worst cases a nervous breakdown, because doing the double weighing means doing it at each feeding. If the child eats every hour and a half, including night, the mother will have to undress, weigh, dress, subjecting the child to stress as well who will react by crying and getting nervous, factors that will negatively affect breastfeeding.
Sand the baby is breastfed it is useless to double weigh. While with the bottle the baby must eat the much established and prepared with the formula to get the right nutrients, with the mother's milk he has exactly what he needs every time he needs it, without having to eat exaggerated quantities of milk. . So it will also be impossible to determine what the right amount will be to give him and unless the mother does not want to express the milk and give it to him in the bottle, all this will only serve to create anxiety and stress.
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The growth of the baby from 0 to 12 months
The most important stages in the growth of a baby from 0 to 12 months of life
The ideal and most recommended way to keep a baby's growth under control is weigh it once a week, always at the same time, always on the same scale, naked and fasting, just before the bath or before the baby food. You have to weigh it and take the weight by writing it down and making it known to the pediatrician during the visits.
- If your baby loses weight during the first 10/14 days, don't worry so much because it is always the physiological weight loss (if this does not exceed 10% of the total weight, that is 300 g on a 3 kg child) due to the disposal of meconium, vernix, feces etc. It often affects even if the baby has been under the phototherapy lamp (jaundice), because he will certainly have slept a lot and eaten less, but he will recover soon.
- From 14 days on, the baby should really start gaining weight: therefore at the weekly check if he has taken from 150 to 200 grams per week, and if we change the diaper often - at least 7 times in 24 hours - we will be able to rest assured, even if of course apart from the weight gain the length must also be monitored.
From the third month onwards until the fifth, we will have to be content with seeing the scales rise by 150 grams per week, while from the sixth month even 100 grams per week will suffice.
On the market there are several scales suitable for the weight of newborns, both manual and digital: some even have the possibility of memorizing the weights and others of detecting the weight in two times, first the weight of the mother and then the weight of the mother with the baby. arm (the Wii Fit platform also allows this option); whether they are manual or digital, the important thing is to verify that work perfectly and see that the empty weight is zero.
For those who do not want to buy it because it will be useful only for the very first period and does not have someone to lend it to them, there is the possibility to rent it at the pharmacy at a moderate price. Booking it a few days in advance, there is the possibility to take it for the chosen day and return it after using it, of course having the foresight not to cause damage.
