I do think it is important for medical professionals to say SOMETHING in these situations where early weaning has likely contributed to health problems. One mother I know weaned her baby early, and he then suffered through almost continuous ear infections. He hadn't had even one during the five or six months he was breastfed, but once he weaned he had one after another - lots of pain, antibiotics, delayed speech due to hearing loss, etc. The mother specifically asked her doctor if longer breastfeeding might have prevented this, and he told her no, that the tendency towards ear infections was genetic and had nothing to do with feeding methods. So of course when she had her next baby, she followed the same pattern as with the previous one - and once again went through more than a year of terrible ear infections. I don't know if the doctor actually knew that formula-fed babies have more ear infections, but if he did he certainly didn't convey that information to this mother. That left her making decisions without the full information, and I think that was unfair to both mother and baby. Teresa Pitman Guelph, Ontario *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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