heather - i think ezzo's secret agenda (which may be unknown to them) is to encourage moms to bottlefeed rather than breastfeed. why do i think so? because everything about what they advise you to do is inherently anti-breastfeeding. regimenting breastfeeding in the way they teach is a way to prevent breastfeeding from being a comforting, nurturing activity. i suspect most of us have seen it - a mom who "just breastfeeds." that is, she feeds the baby a certain amount of time every so often, pops the baby off, and it is JUST feeding the baby. this is as opposed to a mother who incorporates breastfeeding into a nurturing relationship, and doesn't have to have it explained to her about "non nutritive suckling' - its nourishing the body AND the soul for her baby. and why would ezzo be opposed to breastfeeding as a nurturing approach to parenting? its not a way in which you can express a patriarchal, domineering power relationship that is entirely about control, and not about respect or love. i sense a great fear of children when i read the ezzo/babywise material. people who are afraid of their children and therefore want to control them, really dig this stuff. people who don't particularly like their children. there's plenty of 'em. for instance, a recent mom i saw who has difficulties and whose baby has difficulties as well. she can't nurse him beyond a certain point and will put up with anything, and i mean anything, rather than "just" nurse him again before it is "time." she will put him in his room in his crib screaming (she recognizes that she must do this to avoid hurting him) and will try just about anything . . . except nursing him. i can't fix everything that's wrong with her (and the dad for allowing this, etc., etc.) - that is, unless jack knows some handy mexican pharmacia that will send me large hypodermics full of horse tranquilizers and giant economy size bottles of zoloft. she will sit and nurse him when i am around and coo at him "you little monster" and worse. and the information in the babywise books about the benefits of breastfeeding. so what? every website for formula makers has the same info (and every publication etc. that is actually promoting formula feeding). its a subtle thing. you read a bunch of stuff about how great breastfeeding/breastmilk is and when you finish reading it you realize the word "but" is hanging in the air . . . and in capital letters. i have a copy of babywise (ugh) for research purposes. i figure "know your enemy" is good advice. i got it at a garage sale; the saddest part is that someone actually wrote in the answers to the questions at the end of each chapter. the edition i have is 1995, maybe not the same one someone quoted from the other day, but here is one brief paragraph about the benefits of breastfeeding. first it mentions that the uterus returns to its original size more quickly (now when did you hear anyone worry about that?) it says its "the most economical and convenient way to feed a baby." two more sentences about convenience, and that's it. the word BUT ought to appear next in big letters, because the rest of the book is full of information that makes it plain that breastfeeding is the road to perdition and since it really doesn't make any difference if you formula feed (many comments about safe and adequate substitutes for breastmilk) then why would you bother? especially when this book keeps pointing out that breastfeeding is a way for you to be a "bad" mother by giving in to those evil tendencies to let the baby snack, nurse the baby to sleep, nurse the baby too often and not on a schedule, etc. etc. oh, i could go on and on, of course. but the plain import of this stuff is that sex between husband and wife is important ("obedience of wife to husband" - i guess that means we can tell who gets to set the schedule!). another physical relationship (breastfeeding) is inherently a threat to that, and can't be tolerated - unless highly regimented. the effect of the regimentation is to discourage the practice. also, if you are too fondly connected to that baby, how are you going to listen to him cry? and how are you going to then move on to slapping his little hand and withholding food and all the other ways in which you are expected to raise the baby as he grows? it always makes me want to say "i am the other kind of christian - not associated with anyone who believes in that kind of stuff." carol brussel IBCLC *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html