I've been catching up on my posts and have gone nomail to do so.  A few random
comments on recent posts:

     On the vitamin K discussion:  I also generally subscribe to the "if we
needed it, nature would have provided it" school of thought on most things.
However, Jack's and other people's comments on the lack of vit. K through lack
of dirt exposure in modern life, which I had heard before, makes a lot of
sense.  Realistically, we are not going back to giving birth in the dirt, etc.
Also, one thing I read years ago - and which Jack also mentioned - is that if
a few babies have always died from HDN, it was not enough to affect the
survival of the species, so no big deal from an evolutionary point of view.
But we tend to not want any babies to die unnecessarily, which I don't think
anyone would disagree with.

     On the 10% weight loss.  I really think it probably is an artifact of our
birth/postpartum practices, but that most babies do fine with it - if they are
healthy, full-term and nursing well.  I used to do home health postpartum
visits, and I found that around day 3-4, when I saw most of the moms and
babies, most of the babies were at around 10% loss.  At that point also some
had just gone through a period of no stools.  Most of the time, mom's milk had
just come in, and babies were nursing well with lots of swallowing.  I would
always call them the next day and, in most cases, babies would have started
having copious yellow stools and were fine from then on.  On the other hand,
when a 5 1/2 lb. 36-weeker goes home, even if the baby has been nursing well
from birth and mom's milk comes in right on schedule, I'm not surprised when
they're readmitted for jaundice.  They just don't have as much reserve.  Once
again, the answer is FOLLOW UP!  Miriam