B737-800
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Human Factors
After pushback prior to taxi; load closeout showed 167 pax no lap child. Agent's Souls on Board (SOB) was 168 including 1 lap child. Requested DCA ops to confirm status of lap child on a/c. Operation's Answer was 'Tell me what you need for numbers and I will give it to you.' My reply 'That's not the way it works. Contact agent and confirm SOBs.' It took one inaccurate voice reading plus one inaccurate REV 1 to obtain an accurate REV 2 Closeout and finally takeoff. This was a violation of proper Security and Safety procedures.
B737-800 Captain reported receiving a weight and balance without a lap child which is not in agreement with the load sheet from the Gate Agent. Station Operations' is contacted to reconcile the discrepancy; which operations offers to do without contacting the Gate Agent. The Captain asks that the Gate Agent be contacted to properly reconcile the discrepancy.