Health visiting teams at NCIC have joined forces with the Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness council to provide baby weighing facilities in libraries across Cumbria.
Julie Swanston, health visitor and clinical lead at NCIC, said: “We reached out to Maryport Library to see if they would be keen to have self-weighing scales in their premises, so families could keep an eye on their child's growth.
"All children are offered health visiting contacts as part of the Healthy Child Programme and growth is always a part of these assessments. However, once these have been completed, families may find reassurance in accessing the library to make sure their child is gaining satisfactory weight according to their percentile graph, which is an indication their child is feeding well and they are healthy.
“We were aware that during the pandemic some parents had purchased their own scales, and so moving forward we wanted every family to be able to access scales when it is convenient for them with no cost involvement.
“We specifically chose the library as we believe all children benefit from early access to books and we want to encourage a lifelong love of reading. We believe libraries have the ability to develop and promote early literacy and language skills for our children and are a great way to encourage community connections.
“Following positive feedback from families accessing the self-weigh at Maryport Library, a decision was made to roll out the offer more extensively throughout Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness libraries.”
All the scales in libraries have clear instructions enclosed, so parents can measure their children and plot them on the percentile charts in the back of their child's red books. Should a child have lost weight or gained too much weight, or not be following around the same percentiles as their previous measurement, then parents can contact their health visitor on the number documented in the instruction pack inside all of the library scales. The librarians will also advise families to contact the health visiting team if they are worried in any way.
Libraries with baby weighing facilities across Cumbria:
Carlisle
Eden
South Lakes
- Windermere Library
- Ambleside Library
- Kirkby Lonsdale library
- Kendal Library
- Grange over Sands Library
Furness
Allerdale
- Maryport Library
- Cockermouth Library
- Keswick Library
- Wigton Library
- Silloth Library
- Aspatria Library
- Seaton library
- Workington Library