Why do the growth charts not allow for postnatal weight loss?

[cornflakegirl]

Apologies if this has been answered before, but I couldn't find anything. It's accepted that most babies lose weight initially and regain by two weeks. So why isn't there a dip in the growth charts?

[WoTmania]

I've often wondered about this. I'll be interested too.
So no help, sorry.

[cornflakegirl]

There's a paper referenced on the charts: Postnatal weight loss in term infants: what is "normal" and do growth charts allow for it?. The last bit of the abstract is: Conclusions: Neonatal weight loss is brief, with few children remaining more than 10% below birth weight after 5 days. Growth charts are misleading in the first 2 weeks, because they make no allowance for neonatal weight loss.

I looked it up because I thought it might explain the anomaly - but it just confirmed that it exists!