For my take on pacifiers and thumb-sucking, see the essay on thumbsucking on my web page (http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html) and also this excerpt from my article on "Evolutionary Medicine and Breastfeeding" From the section on implications for pediatric advice: "For mothers who decide to wean prematurely, health care professionals must provide education and support to help relieve the negative health consequences. This might include discussion of various types of formula, and advising parents to avoid whole cows' milk until the child is at least 2.5 years old. It might include making sure all immunizations are complete and up-to-date, and that parents understand the necessity for prompt treatment of all illnesses. Dietary supplements of docosahexanoic acid and arachidonic acid might be advised for optimal brain growth in the child who has been weaned before brain growth has been completed. Parents should also be educated about the possibility that their child's instinctive need to suck (which can be very strong in some children up to and beyond seven years of age) should be respected and met in another way, if not at the breast. Thus, pacifier use and thumb-sucking through age seven, at least, should be considered normal behavior for prematurely weaned children. While pacifiers and thumb-sucking are less healthy alternatives for meeting a child's sucking needs than at the breast, they must still be recognized as meeting legitimate needs. If thumb-sucking is leading to orthodontic problems, then alternatives need to be found. Never should the child, or the parents, be criticized for behavior that is normal for the circumstances and meets real needs." From the section on implications for research needs: "Research on how to best meet the sucking needs of children weaned prematurely: There are many questions that could be asked on this topic: Is a pacifier preferable to the child's own thumb or fingers? If so, what shape, size, and type of pacifier would be best? Is there a certain technique of thumb- or finger-sucking that results in fewer orthodontic problems? Is orthodontic treatment during the teenage years a reasonable trade-off for allowing the child to suck its thumb as long as it needs to during childhood?" Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** 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