Feature Request: Add units of measure to the feeding page.

[enorasec]

Currently using babybuddy to track all my child's feedings, diaper changes etc. We are at the stage where are mixing liquid feedings with solids. It's giving an unrealistic representation sometimes of how much food the child is eating. I propose adding a unit of measure based on what type of food is selected.

i.e.
if type == formula then: select mL or oz. elif type == solid food then: select grams or tsp

[cdubz]

I'm not quite sure what the ask is here -- could you provide some more details?

Re: units generally, Baby Buddy intentionally does not use units. The idea is that people can record information like this in whatever units is convenient for them and not have to worry about conversion or anything (for better or worse).

[enorasec]

I can see that rationale for that. However, on the 'Today's feeding' dashboard panel for example, it provides an unclear representation of the child's feeding.

As of writing this today, my child had 1 feeding but 2 different types of food. He had 1 bottle of 6oz and 3 tsp of solid food. We put in two feeding events but do not put in the solid amount under amounts but in the notes. We do this because when we look at the 'Today's Feeding' panel. it just show one number with context.

Also, in researching this I noticed I can pull up the information on a graph on the web version. My wife and I usually use the mobile version so maybe my request is with the quick reference dashboard panel as opposed to units of measure

[cdubz]

Also, in researching this I noticed I can pull up the information on a graph on the web version. My wife and I usually use the mobile version so maybe my request is with the quick reference dashboard panel as opposed to units of measure

Hm so what graph are you using that gives you what you are looking for? And do you have an idea of how the data might look in the dashboard? I'm still having some trouble understanding what information you're looking for.

[Dinth]

I'm a new user, started using BabyBuddy just yesterday and lack of units is the single annoyance I have encountered. If i feed the baby with 21oz of formula, 200ml of soup and 30g of biscuits or raisins, those are completely different things and I would love to see them separate in BabyBuddy.

Another usecase are newborns on mixed breast milk/formula diet, where if the baby had less than set amount of formula in a day, it must get additional vitamins.

At least in the UK we are using oz as a unit of measurement for formula, but ml/g for other baby food.

[seanhagen]

I've been using BabyBuddy for a few weeks now for our newborn, and being able to select the unit of measurement would be fantastic. It's because me and my partner quick-log* things but don't always use the same unit of measurement -- because at 2am with a crying baby we care more about writing down she fed quickly than making sure we're using the right unit of measurement. Not having to do math every time we do data entry would make our lives easier.

Additionally, when we start doing solid food being able to enter grams would be great -- and feels like it would make comparing & charting breastmilk/formula vs solid food more meaningful.

*: We 'quick-log' by writing down on a pad of paper because the interface on mobile has issues when used via the Home Assistant integration, specifically OttPeterR/addon-babybuddy/issues/31 -- having to try and scroll several pages of notifications meant recording on a pad of paper and doing data entry later when we have both hands free is easier on us.

[MrApplejuice]

Cross-reading this: I guess the real need here is for easy conversion between units, too then, right? If that is the case: if you think about the details of this feature a little more thoroughly, it is getting quite complicated pretty fast:

Someone might want to track food by volume for milk (milliliters/gallons/what is the actual unit here in the US?), someone might want to do it by weight. If it was only one of the two, conversion would be easy. But if the unit is entered and the nature of the unit is completely different, how would you plot it? Different graphs for different kinds of units?

Or would the type of the unit of measure be closely associated with the type of feeding? Weight for solid food and volume for drinks? That would maybe work, but reduce the flexibility of how things are tracked in baby buddy.

Also the database migration for updating an old database without units would be... messy. A "blank" unit of measure would probably be needed to support this, but if a "blank" unit of measure is accepted, that could not be converted from one unit to another again...

I feel that this could be very very messy... (I mean, the feature makes perfect sense but will require a rats-tail of decisions to be made...)

[seanhagen]

Yeah, it's definitely a big ask -- but worth discussing! 😄

I think to start just adding a drop-down with some common units of measurement but not doing any conversion ( at all ), and grouping entries by the unit of measurement when graphing -- that could work.

Alternatively, being able to define a simple expression and use that to batch update selected entries would work for me. That would provide a solution for my use case: partner entered in ounces, I entered in millilitres -- then I can run a batch update to update all of the entries that are in ounces to millilitres ( or the other way around ).

After thinking about it, that's really all I need; the ability to batch update with the ability to specify simple math expressions for the amounts. Then converting and handling different units of measurement is up to me, and only comes into play when I want to do a batch update.

[cdubz]

Conversion is a big part of the reason I chose to avoid units initially. It just adds a level of complexity I’m not really keen to commit to.

I would be most likely to implement metric units based on some sort of standard for what is most commonly used for babies in the medical field.

For stuff like weight and height that is pretty simple but gets more complex when dealing with e.g. feedings and the various types of things folks tend to use feeding records for. There I could theoretically see a drop-down of various units of measurement but I would be very hesitant to use that data in graphs.

I have actually been mulling getting rid of graphs all together because they are the most complex and, I think, least useful part of the app. There are also much better suited tools that can use Baby Buddy’s API for more complex and flexible graphing. So I have mostly shied away from making any changes to the graphs (let alone complex ones like what is being discussed here).

[minideezel]

Commenting to also share my support of this feature. We've been using the Huckleberry app for this and am planning on switching to Baby Buddy for the Home Assistant / Automation integrations.
How Huckleberry implements this for reference:

• Milk and Solids are separate log items to enter with separate flows.
• Milk has the option for breast (with left/right timers) and bottle
• Bottle has an selection of entering the amount by oz or mL, we use mL since it's more granular on our bottles to read.
• The data is shown always in your regional units on the dashboard (so oz)
• There is aggregate items built into this information, such as how many oz per day consumed. Which has been a great check in of how much baby is eating each day.
• Solids has a picklist of popular foods, followed by a free text amount field, and then a "Reaction" system for how well baby liked the food

[cdubz]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, @minideezel. I parse that are two separate things:

1. support for units, and
2. a separate "food feeding" model and flow.

I do think separating food and breast feeding would make this is a bit more palpable. The existing feeding model is over-complicated and could be simplified in this way.

And for units supporting oz and ml specifically with the rough conversion of 30 mL = 1 oz seems like it could be reasonable (and, again, made a bit less daunting with separate models).

[Dinth]

for me its mainly the case of separating the formula and solids food flows. I have also migrated from huckleberry and i find the suggestions from @minideezel nice, but the first one is crucial for me