I came back from the pediatrician and she said my baby weighed “ 12.8 lbs “. Does that mean 12 lbs and 8oz, or does it actually mean 12.8 lbs, which would be around 12 lbs and 12oz?
I’m from a “kg” country so this is a bit confusing to me, and I’m not used to that dot in the middle. Basically, my question is – does my baby weight 5.8 kg or does he weight 5.6 kg?
In: Mathematics
it means 12.8 lbs just like it says. ‘.’ in a number is only ever used as a decimal point just like metric.
you might see other seperators like 5’9″ or 12:15 or 12lb8, but . is always .
In the US we weigh with 16 ounce pounds, but many of our electronic scales are decimal based. Not an expert, but if you are in the US I’m going to say your baby is 12 pounds 12 ounces.
Actual 12.8 lbs. But I’m neither a parent or educated in the medical field. I just can’t imagine a scenario where 12.5 lbs isn’t twelve and one-half pounds.
It means 12.8 pounds. So 12 pounds, roughly 13 ounces, meaning he weighs 5.8kg.
Typically, Americans don’t convert the decimal point of pounds to ounces. If I was telling someone my weight, I’d say I’m “180 and a half pounds,” not “180 pounds and 8 ounces.” I’d imagine it’s confusing, but we seldomly convert pounds to ounces or vice versa, unless it’s cooking related.
Yeah, it’s confusing. In a medical context, “behind the scenes”, everything is done in metric. (e.g. many drugs are dosed in mg/kg), but since the weight of the patient overall is generally discussed in pounds, that’s the number often listed on the (medical) scale, and the number the doctor tells you. (If the scale was made for cooking or shipping, it would list ounces.)
Decimalizing the pounds makes it really easy to convert between the two, without wondering if the appropriate 1/16th fractions were applied every time.
In the US as with many other primarily English-speaking countries, the “.” is used as a decimal separator. This would mean “12.8” would be 12 pounds plus 8/10 of a pound, or approximately 12 ounces.
Other countries, and I’d guess you come from one of those countries, use a “,” as a decimal separator. So “12,8” would mean the same thing there – 12 and 8/10.
Think about it this way – if 12.8 was supposed to be 12 lb 8 oz, then it would need to go all the way to .15.
Also, it would need to use a “leading 0” or else you wouldn’t know if 12.1 was 1 oz or 10.
The only person who knows what the doctor meant is the doctor.
But if they wrote “12.8” or said “twelve point eight” then they were communicating 12.8 pounds.
If they said wrote something like “12-8” or “12 8”, or said “twelve pounds eight” or “twelve eight” (without the word “point”) then they were communicating 12 pounds 8 ounces.
12.8lb. We don’t typically measure in pounds and ounces because there’s more room for error. We typically measure in kilograms but parents in the US would rather hear pounds.
It should mean 12.8, but I have seen many people screw it up. Also, no one measures babies in decimals, at least in my experience. Lbs and ounces is what I would expect
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