It used to be that 10% loss was seen as either the time for action
or at least the time to look at why it was happening.  When hospital
stays were longer, by the time mom/baby went home, if all was going
well, weight had turned around.  Now with moms going home at 24 to
48 hours, some acceptable weight loss can still occur after
discharge, hence the need for a lower threshold for that time
period.  I believe it was lactation resources that began to say we
should be LOOKING AT it when weight loss got to 7 or 8%.  This means
checking to see whether baby is nursing effectively or if there is
some problem with milk supply getting going.  It did not mean that
supplement is automatically needed at 7-8%!  The whole topic of
weight loss as one factor rather than the "be all and end all" of
assessing whether a baby needs supplementing has been discussed at
length on LN.
Many times a weight loss of 7-8% will only need to generate a
recheck within a couple days rather than waiting 2 weeks.  In other
cases it may lead to discovery of a problem with positioning/latch
which the sooner it is corrected, the sooner baby's weight will
"turn around".

Winnie

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