April 2004

Back in February, during the half term holidays, Mum decided to make use of a voucher Dad had given her for Christmas for a day in a health spa. Mum went on for weeks about the benefits of thalasso-something therapy and reflex-whajamacallit! Well, she could be pampered and pulled as much as she liked - I was spending the day with Genie, and we had the whole day mapped out…

We had interrupted our hotel building on Genie’s Dad’s computer (and Genie had gone bankrupt twice as she “couldn’t compromise on quality fixtures and fittings”) and were tucking into a delicious lunch, when Genie’s Mum received an urgent call from the surgery where she works as a doctor. Apparently, the health visitor had phoned in sick and there were lots of mums with young babies already arriving for their monthly check-ups.

“Sorry, girls,” said Genie’s Mum. “I’ll have to go in and weigh all the babies, so you’ll have to come too.”

Genie shot me a grimace across the dining table but, I must admit, I thought it sounded quite exciting. I knew that Genie’s mum wasn’t the sort of person to sit us in the corner with our colouring books and tell us to be quiet - and I was right.

Some of the babies at the clinic had older brothers and sisters who were clearly getting bored waiting around. So, our first job was to get out some toys from the surgery’s special cupboard and create a play area for the fractious toddlers. Before we knew it, we had a dozen children to play with, and we kept them amused while their mums escaped to have their latest offspring weighed and measured and checked over.

“Thank you so much,” said one mum. “That was the easiest baby clinic I have been to, not having to worry about Toby touching things he shouldn’t!”

She even called back five minutes later with a bag of sweets for us both!

Towards the end of the afternoon, when we had run out of toddlers to play with, Genie’s mum invited us to see what she does with the babies. The room was very warm because the babies had to be undressed and weighed in the nude. When I asked why they couldn’t be weighed in their clothes, the lady who was busy undressing her baby for the scales laughed and told me that a wet nappy can weigh as much as the baby! Yuck!!!

The lady handed Genie’s mum a little red book and, when she had weighed the baby, she wrote the weight in the book. She then turned to another page in the book and plotted the weight on a graph, drawing a line from the last mark. Genie’s mum explained that she records all this information to make sure that each baby is growing correctly. Usually, a baby who does not grow fast enough - or who grows too fast - is either not feeding enough, or is being fed too much, and a quick chat with the mum can put this right. Occasionally, though, weight problems can indicate something more serious but, of course, a baby is unable to say that they are not feeling well.

After weighing the baby, Genie’s mum then measured the length of the baby, and finally she measured around the baby’s head. Again, she recorded all these details in the little red book, and plotted them on separate graphs.

The lady laid the baby on a change mat and asked me to watch her while she fumbled in her bag for a clean nappy. I was just thinking how wonderful it would be to have a baby brother or sister when the baby peed all over the change mat! Is it possible to get a baby already potty trained???

If you want to find out more about Brownies and Guides in your local area why not visit their excellent web site:

www.girlguiding.org.uk