This is a real pet peeve of mine.  We should not look at the weight
loss.  We should be looking at how well the baby is nursing.  A baby who
is nursing well (open--pause--close type of suck), will regain the
weight.  A baby who is not, will not, even if the weight loss does not
seem as great.

Babies lose weight in the first few days because they are not latching
on properly in order to get milk adequately.  Colostrum is not usually
plentiful, but it is adequate, but the issue is that the baby needs to
get it, and usually, the babies are not getting the colostrum which is
available.  This is what those that work in postpartum are supposed to
be working to do, but they do not, unfortunately, most of the
time--usually from lack of knowledge.  So then this is where the
supplementation starts.  Even supportive nurses are not necessarily
better, because they often just tell the mother to keep at it, and let
the baby nurse "on cue" as long as they want.  The problem is, if the
baby is not latching on well, he cannot get the milk, and will be hungry
all the time, and because he is on the breast (but not breastfeeding)
all the time, usually with a poor latch, the mother will get sore, and
so on.

Please refer to JHL, June 1996, for an immediate postpartum
breastfeeding decision tree with explanation.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC