>I love the breastfed >toddlers, they drink just the right amount and learn to eat family foods >because they are used to a variety of flavors (from mom's milk). {Haha >gotcha - we don't "know" how MUCH milk they get, but I "know" it is the >RIGHT amount.} I wonder. The mothers of most breastfed toddlers would be astounded to hear that the biologically normal "weaning window" seems to be between 2 1/2 and 7 years. That means that the truly "normal" toddler is probably getting a pretty hefty dose of human milk at age 2 or even 3. Yet the typical American nursing todder may be nursing only a couple times a day at 12-18 months. Of more concern to me, the typical 9 month old may be nursing just a few times a day, with mom having her eye on weaning at a year but with the evils of formula burned into her brain, so that baby is heavily into solids instead. Aren't these babies being shortchanged of *an awful lot* of milk? Is the difference in volume really made up with cow milk or formula in the typical family? What happens if it isn't? For that matter, what happens if it *is*? Do any of you have rough figures for how much human milk the "normal" (not typical) baby should be getting at 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years, 3 years? I'm increasingly nervous about the longterm consequences of milk-deprived kids whose moms aren't replacing their prematurely waning milk supplies with any other form of milk - and I'm even concerned about moms who are. Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, wanting to know whether to fret in Ithaca, NY