Jan and colleagues,
I thought "they" had to have the weight to admit the baby - but most
often this is CONVENTION NOT NECESSITY. (And we recently changed that
"rule" - which was just the way it had been done.) Think abougt it -
if you had a baby too sick to weigh, you wouldn't say, "Oh sorry,
can't do anything for your baby because we can't admit it without a
weight." So  when a group tells you it's God's truth, send them back
to ask.
You know, some of our nurses remember the days when babies didn't get
anything but water in the first 24 hours. Think those babies lost
weight? I guess.

What we need is a look at what well-born babies who go to breast early
and as often as they like look like weight-wise, after their
non-medicated, non-IV filled births. (Maybe I will go look to see how
many we've had in the past year and what that looked like.) It would
be a start. And did anybody else see this article?

 ---Dawn Kersula who is on vacation and still has to keep up with Lactnet!

From JOGNN

Excessive Weight Loss in Breastfed Infants During the Postpartum Hospitalization

Pamela J. Mulder1,
Teresa S. Johnson2,
Linda C. Baker3

Article first published online: 7 JAN 2010




Objective: To examine differences in breastfeeding frequency, voids,
and stools in infants with weight losses < or ≥7% during the
postpartum hospitalization.

Design: Secondary analysis of data from a primary psychometric study
examining the Mother Infant Breastfeeding Progress Tool (MIBPT).

Setting: A midwestern community hospital in a multicultural racially
diverse community.

Participants: Convenience sample of 53 breastfeeding women and infants
hospitalized after birth.

Methods: Data were collected during a chart review; infants were
divided into < or ≥7% weight loss groups at 2 days postpartum, and
breastfeeding frequency, voiding, and stooling were examined between
groups and used to predict a ≥7% weight loss at 2 days postpartum.

Results: Of the 53 infants, 20.8% lost ≥7% of their birth weight.
Infants who lost ≥7% of their birth weight had significantly more
total voids and a higher breastfeeding frequency on the day of birth
than infants who lost <7% of their birth weight. A logistic regression
analysis resulted in total voids being the only significant predictor
of a ≥7% weight loss, with an odds ratio of 1.74 (95% CI=1.09, 2.75, p
<; .05).

Conclusion: In the absence of other indicators of ineffective
breastfeeding, breastfeeding infants who lose ≥7% of their birth
weight during the first 2 days postpartum might be experiencing a
physiologic diuresis after birth, unrelated to their breastfeeding
behaviors. More research is necessary to determine the cause of a ≥7%
weight loss in newborns during the first 48 hours after birth.

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