An unseemly preoccupation with size

We are, as a society, preoccupied with size.  Particularly the size of newborn babies.  I find myself answering the question before it's even asked - you just know it's coming.

Grandad's reaction: "wow, over 9 pounds!  I caught a trout that big once."

[source]

As if hauling in a 9 pound trout was equivalent to 27 hours of labour.

And a friend: "just think, that's about 9 blocks of butter!"

All I could think was that I was glad babies don't have so many corners and scratchy wrapping.

At every turn, (it seemed almost daily in those first weeks), Milkbaby is weighed and measured, his growth carefully recorded in his book and plotted on a graph.  Yesterday he had another such weigh-in.

But why all this measuring and weighing?  Does it serve any real medical purpose?

Having done a little research, I'd like to record here, for posterity, that size does not matter.  It's growth that counts.