Metric Babies

[Maydup]

We struggle to maintain the right to buy a 1/4 of sweets or a lb of carrots from the market stall, yet babies are still only ever measured in imperial weights. Why is that?

[boxtops]

I didn't think they were, my neighbour's baby came in kilos?

[sandyRoe]

Royal babies are different. They come in imperial measures.

[pixie373]

From my first one in 1995, mine were all measured in kilos. I had to ask the midwife for imperial equivalent, because i related to it better.

[Cloverjo]

They are weighed and recorded officially in grams, but no one knows what a 3801 gram baby looks like, so it is converted to pounds and ounces when relaying the info to media, friends and family etc.

[Maydup]

How many bags of sugar is that clover?

[Cloverjo]

8 one pound bags of sugar plus 6 ounces. :)

[emmie]

i still buy goods from the market in llbs,

[Peter Pedant]

Lyttel bebbies come in kilos as well. This imperial one was 3.18 kg which is a good weight.

and then some Palace flunky multiplied by 2.2 - versatile these flunkies - and got 8lb 6oz

v v bad doing pounds in a hospital:
Getting the dose wrong
Prescribing in pediatrics is a perpetual math exercise. Almost everything is dosed as mg/kg. One common way to mess up is to accidentally use the weight in pounds, instead of in kilograms. That is a pretty direct path to accidental overdose.

in fact the UK has been metric since 1973

[Maydup]

53.5 kilograms according to the online converter.

[Maydup]

Or maybe I input wrongly there!!!

I certainly haven't been metric since 1973!

[pixie373]

That's more my weight, maydup!

[EcclesCake]

I pity the poor woman who has a 53kg baby!

[mikey4444]

I have never understood this drivel about buying carrots or apples in pounds or kilos. When I went to Tesco earlier today, I picked up 4 apples and put them in my basket. I also bought 3 carrots, 2 courgettes and 4 onions, and an Aubergine. but I have no idea how much they weighed.

What difference does it make when we buy most food items by numbers rather then weight ? How many apples would I get to the pound or the kilo anyway ? If I wanted a pound of apples and found that 3 was under a pound and 4 was over, what can I do....chop one in half !

I'm not baking a cake or putting diesel into the car, so not sure where weights and measures come in.

[gingejbee]

The baby was undoubtedly weighed metrically but somebody had to convert so that the mass of population could "understand". Very difficult to get to grips with kilos after only twenty-five years, you know.

[emmie]

because its what some of us understand, i prefer it, i ask for a pound of tomatoes, the label says how much in pounds weight.

[Maydup]

It all depends I suppose, on whether you buy your carrots or babies from the supermarket or from the independent grocer.

[Sycamore3House]

My first born a son was metric in 1990 he weighed 4.55kg. I thought all babies were that size then they converted it to 10lb and realised not everyone had one that size. My daughter was a little runt really and weighed in at 8lb 12oz can't remeber her metric weight just knew she was smaller. Funny what you remember.

[mikey4444]

I am a bachelor and confess that I know very little about babies and their arrival in the world. I think that is best left to the Memsahibs. After all, us men usually only have a small part in the process. But I wouldn't have thought that a 8lb 12oz baby could be described as a runt !