>I think serial weights to determine what is
>happening NOW are called for

It's the smile effect.  The newborn's weight early on describes a smile,
descending from birthweight high on the left to a low point in the middle,
from which it ascends again on the right.  If the baby is weighed on the
left side of the smile, fairly close to the birthweight, and then is weighed
again on the right side after weight turns around, what the two points show
may be a static weight or a weight loss.  But if more points were filled in,
it might show a baby who continued to lose for a while after the first
weighing, then bottomed out, and is now gaining nicely.  Well worth another
weight in a week, if everything else seems good today.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY

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