The first thing is not to worry about such things as percent weight loss.  I
believe this is another factor to frighten mothers and exert our control
over them.

I would have gotten the mother expressing her milk and finger feeding it to
the baby.  Even if she got only two drops of colostrum, this could have been
put into sugar water and finger fed to the baby.  Why? By encouraging her to
express her milk we tell her breastmilk is important, even if it is diluted
with sugar water, we want the baby to get it.  This is one reason I feel so
strongly that jumping to formula is a big mistake.  We then make that
statement about formula.  And I would have told the mother that this will
work and that what is not possible today may be possible tomorrow, and what
is not possible tomorrow may be possible the day after, but it is worth the
effort, and we will make sure your baby gets your milk in the meantime.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC