My husband, a professor of economics and law, was reading over my
shoulder when I was looking at the discussion of the DHS case.  He
started laughing--although the case is obviously not very funny.  As he
quickly pointed out, the idea that being below the 5th percentile is
cause for removal means that on average 5% of all children would need to
be put in foster care.  While we do worry when we see a child with low
weight, we must accept that that is the nature of statistics--someone
has to be in the 1% percentile--in fact 1 out of every 100 people are.
If that is the only cause for removal, perhaps a statistician is who
this mother needs to advocate for her at DHS.

My heart goes out to this poor mother and so many others that are the
victims of gross stupidity and innumeracy.

Judy Gelman, IBCLC
Washington, DC