Description

Neonates tend to lose weight transiently during the first few days of life after which weight gain occurs. Flaherman reported curves correlating weight loss at a given time with the population norms. The authors are from the University of California San Francisco, Penn State College of Medicine and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland.


Patient selection: neonate delivered by cesarean section, age range 6 to 96 hours, exclusively breastfed

 

Parameters:

(1) number of hours since birth

(2) birth weight

(3) current weight

 

weight loss =

= ((current weight) - (birthweight))/(birthweight)

 

curve for 75th percentile of weight loss =

= (0.001994 * ((hours)^2)) - (0.2806 * (hours)) - 0.0984

 

curve for 95th percentile of weight loss =

= (0.001701 * ((hours)^2)) - (0.2686 * (hours)) - 1.404

 

Less than 5 percent of neonates will show a greater weight loss than indicated by the 95th percentile curve.


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