In Diane Wiessinger's post of 2 March she describes the early weight curve as a smile, and explains clearly why we should be wary of concluding that a baby's growth may be stagnating, when it is just at different points on the arc of the smile.
We weigh babies at birth, thereafter daily from the third day of life until such time as we see start of the other half of the smile or the baby is discharged from hospital.  Obviously we are not forced to send anyone home the same day, or before feeding is at least getting started, hooray for the welfare state!  It is not unheard of for babies to have their birthweight equal their lowest recorded weight, and most (over 80% is my guess) are gaining from their lowest weight by day 4.  The curves of demand-fed breastfed babies look like a letter V.  I have learned to be extra alert to the potential for trouble if the V seems to be tipped slightly on its side, so that the downward slope is much steeper than the upward one (baby is gaining slower than it lost the weight).  It is the kind of curve I often see when nipple shields are part of the picture, and is a good motivator to get baby back on the bare breast.
The babies I see who have the rounder, smiley curves are usually premature or have been supplemented in large amounts very early for reasons not primarily related to BF problems (mother too sick to nurse, mother on meds precluding BF to name two).  Babies seem to be pokier about turning their weights around when artificially fed, possibly due to low-grade inflammation of GI mucosa with resultant decreased absorption.
Rachel Myr, midwife
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Kristiansand, Norway

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