A novel approach on representation of postnatal weight loss in healthy newborns-The Newborn Weight Loss Tool

Human milkis the optimal source of nutrition for all infants & exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for first 6 months of life. After birth newbornstypically lose weight steadily  until feeding is established. Weight lossup to 7-10% of birth weight is  encountered. Pronounced weight loss isassociated with hyperbilirubinemia and hypernatremic dehydration whichconstitute two most common causes of readmission. Monitoring a baby’s weight istherefore essential until lactation is established.

Newborn weight loss tool (NEWT)is a potential solution for detecting newborns who are on a trajectory forexcessive weight loss. This tool consist of nomogram that show hour by hourweight loss trajectories during birth hospitalisation for healthy newborns. Thenewborn weight loss tool is a free, publicly  available website thatdepicts a newborn’s weight loss  in the context of normative referencenomograms for weight loss at each hour of age. This can be used by manuallyentering new born data including weight. These nomograms can be used byclinicians to help guide infant feeding decisions. Participants will be visitedin postnatal ward during the hospital stay and weight will be monitored dailytill discharge; 48 hours in case of babies born by vaginal route and 96 hoursin those who are born by LSCS. Following data will be fed as input to the NEWTtool- birth weight, date of birth in MM/DD/YYYY format, birth time in 24 hourclock format and post birth weights and timing of these measurements. Nomogramwill be generated using the above inputs up to 48-96 hours.

While growth chart is anestablished  tool for the assessment of childhood nutrition and growth; asimilar plot for the postnatal weight loss is a recent development. Most of thestudies on postnatal weight loss are conducted on western population.Literature review revealed no Indian studies. Hence this study will provideinsights on Indian population on the same.