ANALYSIS OF PARENTAL ESTIMATES OF CHILDRENS WEIGHTS IN THE ED

Study objective: To assess the ability of parents to estimate their ch ildren's weight. Methods: We assembled a convenience sample of childre n, newborn to 5 years, who presented to the ED of a tertiary care hosp ital. Each child's mother or father was asked to estimate the child's weight as accurately as possible. The triage nurse then weighed the ch ild on an electronic scale. An age-based formula was also used to esti mate the child's weight. The parental estimate and the formula-based w eight were compared with the weight indicated on the scale. Results: O ne hundred seventeen children were enrolled. The mean age was 26.7 mon ths (range, newborn to 60 months). We analyzed agreement by plotting t he percent difference between the weight estimates against the actual weights. The mean+/-SD difference between the parental estimate and th e actual weight was 6.8%+/-9.8%. Parental estimates were accurate to w ithin 10% of the measured weight in 80% of the cases (94 of 117). The mean+/-SD difference between the formula-derived weight and the actual weight was 13.6%+/-17.5%. The formula was accurate to within 10% of t he measured weight in 46% of cases (54 of 117). Conclusion: In 80% of cases, the parental estimate of the child's weight was within 20% of t he measured weight. The parental estimate was more accurate than the f ormula-derived weight.