The baby in question is already a statistical outlier at birth, i.e. he
doesn't fit on the curve withint 2 standard deviations from the average. 
Babies like this are not the ones the curves are for.
The other thing that is VITAL to understand, and I mean truly understand to
the core of your being, is that neither weight, nor placement on a curve,
constitute a diagnosis.  All these data do is tell you whether you ought to
look even more closely than usual at this particular baby.  Weighing the
baby tells you nothing, nada, zip, zilch, about WHY the baby is at this
particular weight nor how to help them to grow as they are meant to.  You
don't even find out how they are meant to grow, by measuring them.  Any
measures aimed at 'helping' the baby need to be based on some kind of
assessment about WHY the baby weighs less than expected.    
That said, a 14% weight loss from birth weight on day five would concern me,
no matter what the baby's birthweight was.  I would also want to know
whether the first weighing was carried out before the baby had passed any
meconium.  In a baby that big, the meconium volume will be large and if the
birthweight includes everything in the baby's gut at birth there will be a
larger drop than if the so-called birthweight is actually the net weight
after lying skin to skin with mother for a couple of hours, feeding at least
once, and passing a ton of meconium.
My concerns would be eased on seeing that baby was gaining steadily, as this
baby is, but I know myself and I know I would relax more when the baby
reached birthweight again and continued to thrive.
WHO are trying to devise some way of picking up babies who might be getting
into trouble in the first few weeks. The new growth standards are not so
finely tuned for the first week of life that you can tell from them whether
a baby is possibly getting into trouble.  I know that there are certain
patterns of early weight loss and regaining that I see in certain
situations.  What I see when breastfeeding is going smoothly and well, is
that baby is back to birthweight by day five or so, no matter how far below
they were on day three.  
While I can live with weight losses in the first three days or so, of 10%
and even more, I can't live with them after that, because lactogenesis II
should be happening and baby should be feeding effectively and regaining her
loss.

This is a baby for whom the curves will likely never tell you more than
'yepp, still an outlier!'  To tell whether this baby is thriving you will
have to look at the actual baby, which fortunately is a quick and easy way
to find out.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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