Karen Clements writes: <<If you are not weighing for another 4 days from birth some of those babies may actually have lost more that 10% but are on the climb back up again by Day 4 and you don't know that cause you didn't weigh them in between. I guess its a case of what you don't know wont hurt you (LOL!)>> <<[Re: daily weights] Too much weighing (I think)and then the poor mother goes home petrified that her baby has loss around 10% of its birthweight,they are undermined, losing their confidence, reaching for the formula. All of this is so hard to 'undo' and build their confidence up again.>> There are two sides to looking at the "daily weights" question, and you brought them out for us, Karen. I think the "what you don't know won't hurt you" approach might be fine in a supportive environment, where a mom knows how to evaluate the quality of her baby's breastfeeding in the early days. After all, if the baby is latching well, swallowing a lot, pooping a lot, are we worried? No! Do we NEED daily weights? No! But in a truly supportive environment, the mom--well educated about breastfeeding--would also know that some weight loss is normal on Days 2 + 3, and that the baby is expected to turn the corner by Day 4, and she could avoid being petrified and watch for the first day of weight gain as a confirmation that everything's working well. I believe that weights--if they are accurate--really do give us some reliable documentation of what's going on with the baby's feeding. [Of course, as any adult dieter knows, you have to adjust (mentally) for recent feeds and recent major diaper events that would make small fluctuations in the overall curve of weight loss and gain.] And if the mom is lucky enough to be in a supportive environment, then by definition she and her baby will be followed up until everybody knows the baby is feeding well and gaining well. A story from my past: My first child was born in 1968 at 37 weeks, 5 pounds 11 ounces, and I knew almost NOTHING about breastfeeding or babies. She nursed maybe five times during our three-day hospital stay, which included spending the first 24 hours NPO according to the standard practice of the time. What they did with her overnight or in the nursery they didn't tell me, but she and I were together for just five "feedings" a day, at 5 & 9 AM, 1 & 5 & 9 PM, and she slept soundly through about half of those "feedings" (although I tried to wake her, and she had no drugs on board). I assume that they weighed her daily, but they didn't tell me what her weights were after that initial one. I had read that it wasn't good to weigh the baby at home--too anxiety-producing for a nursing mom--but my husband and I were curious, so after a couple of days at home we rigged up a homemade balance scale that we could hang in the doorway. I recall that the balance weight we used was a five-pound bag of flour. We did some fancy mathematical calculation that involved how far from the fulcrum the baby (in a basket) and the flour bag were when they came into balance that would give us her weight--and we got 5 pounds 6 ounces! Well, I knew THAT had to be wrong--she was guzzling my milk and pooping up a storm! So I said to myself, I guess we built the scale wrong, and we abandoned the whole idea of weighing her. Later, when I had learned more about birth and breastfeeding, I realized that she very likely did lose that much weight, and the scale may have been right after all. But at the time I had the confidence of the new convert to the cult of motherhood, ready to toss the scale in the trash because I could FEEL that the baby and I were doing fine. And--just to round out my story with the rest of the true facts--when she had her first pediatrician visit (at one month of age, because that was the standard practice of the time) she was only 15 ounces over birth weight. It was like a blow to the solar plexus when the doctor, who I'd never met before, suggested formula supplements, and I was just barely able to gasp that I wanted to try nursing more often to build my milk supply. He OK'd that plan, and the next weight check was scheduled for one month later. In that month she gained 2 pounds 5 ounces. There are so many things to think about this story. 1) how cavalier (and sloppy) was that early HMO's whole approach to borderline premature babies, weight gain, breastfeeding, and mother support; 2) how much I'd like it now if I had more data points on her weight curve, to anchor my hazy maternal recollections about what worked and what didn't work; 3) where did I get the courage to tell the doctor I wouldn't use formula--well, that's an easy question, because I had reached that "breastfeeding is a sacrament" feeling and wouldn't allow anything to come between my daughter and me. There's an example of "what I didn't know didn't hurt me--lucky for us things were working all right." I'm still a believer in giving parents information--as long as you take the time to tell them what it means for them, deal with their questions or apprehensions, and make sure they will have continuing support. Unfortunately, in the U.S. healthcare "system" (which sometimes seems more like "chaos" that like anything "systematic") TIME and GOOD FOLLOW-UP are two things you can't always count on, and SUPPORT has been slipping away for generations. So because the system is bad, does that mean we should withhold information because we don't have the time and resources to help parents deal with it? I think not. Once again, all we need to do is fix the system. No wonder we get burned out! But, just so I don't end on a "down" note, let's remember that breastfeeding itself is a beautifully-designed system. All we have to do is help the mom and baby set it in motion, and then we have all those hormones and beautiful belches and loaded diapers helping the mom "keep the faith." *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. 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