Hi Joy and all,

Very good post re this topic and very worthwhile research for your
dissertation!

I thought there was a study, a review perhaps, of hundreds? of babies who
were exclusively bf and "thriving" and showed they lost about 5.5 to 6.5 %
of birthweight. Formula fed babies lose 2 to 3 % I thought. Mentioned in the
same article (JHL?).

I do see this in my practice. Babies who are partial bf, i.e. mostly
bottlefeeding, don't lose as much, and in fact, usually lose in between the
full formula and full bf infants. Once in a great while, I will see a baby
gain an ounce or so at discharge, and virtually all of these are formula
fed.
This makes it seem to me that feeding (volume intake) is a major factor.  I
have an open mind, but so far I am not convinced of the IV fluids
connection.

I do agree with this point from your post, "Assuming a normal curve, the 7%
with SD of 2 suggests 95% of babies will fall between 3 and 11%." Yes, I see
this in my practice. The babies who are doing very poorly, and have jaundice
and wt loss, and usually are premie or late premie, occasionally we'll see
14 percent wt loss. Not a rare occurrence. This is the highest percent I've
seen in 5 yrs here, where I routinely calculate percent wt loss (sort of an
obsessive thing, just for my information mostly). All babies were normal,
i.e. not metabolic problems or other serious illness, just were not taking
in enough volume/calories.

Laurie Wheeler MN RN IBCLC
Mississippi USA

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