WEIGHT
The weighing time should immediately follow a bowel movement and just before a feeding time; then, and only then, we have the real weight of baby, as a retained bowel movement may often add from four to five ounces to the child's weight. There should be a careful record of each weighing, for there may develop a great difference if different members of the family endeavor to keep the weight in their minds. The normal baby should gain four to eight ounces a week up to six months, and from then on the weekly gain is from two to four ounces; in other words, by six months the baby should double his birth weight and at the end of a year his weight should be three times the birth weight. A stationary or diminishing weight demands careful attention; a good doctor should be called at once. Likewise, a very rapid increase in weight is not to be desired, as we do not want a fat baby, but we do desire a well-proportioned and alert baby, and, as someone has said, it is better to have little or no gain during the excessive heat than to upset the digestion by over-feeding, designed to keep the baby gaining.
In weighing, usually the outside garments are removed, leaving on a shirt, band, diaper, and stockings with the necessary pins; the little fellow thus protected is placed into the weighing basket and at each successive weighing, these same clothes or others just like them are always included in the weight, and it should be so reported to the physician.