Dear Dr. MIra and all, I had a "problem" with my 3rd baby staying on a weight plateau at about 4-5 months, and the ped. MD gave me a hard time about it. A friend who had been active in LLL recommended adding butter to her cereal once or twice a day. I did it, and she gained at a more satisfactory rate for the Dr. by the next month's check up. Then I thought, enough of this, wondered if I should really be boosting her weight that way, and stopped the added butter. At the 6 month check up, she had gained only a few ounces over a month, and the Dr. carefully wrote down everything I fed her, which was mainly breast milk, some cereal with applesauce or squash, some crackers, and expressed milk or one bottle of formula while I was at work one evening a week or once in two weeks. The Dr. gave me "the eye" while I was telling her how little formula I used. The Dr. made an appt. with a dietician that afternoon, so I scrambled for a sitter and drove to a downtown hospital for the appt. Blood and urine tests were done. When the dietician wrote down the average day's food intake she surprisingly said, "This sounds like enough calories" and reviewed what I should be feeding her. The blood/urine tests were negative, and I guess they decided I was not an abusive or neglectful mother. I changed clinics and Drs, and the next one was the mother of 3 boys and one of her sons had been "tiny" like my daughter. Whew! She understood. I was feeding this baby very similar to my older two, so was only somewhat intimidated and doubtful about my mothering skills and judgment. It's really different and a place of weakness when you are the patient. I started adding peanut butter or cream cheese on grahm crackers for her snacks, and that probably helped her gain. Today she is 61/2, 40 lbs, still a little skinny thing, very picky eater. My 9 yo daughter is so different! 120 lbs. and just chunky (like my husband's side of the family), she is very active, loves to play football at recess with the boys....just try to knock HER over. So MIra, maybe your friend can try adding butter and other fats to the baby's snacks, or maybe she is just fine for her. But I don't see a reason to stop breastfeeding on this altar of ignorance. BTW, I breastfed daughter #1 for 2 full years, and daughter #2 for about 21 months, until she decided she was done. Susan Potts rn ibclc Minnesota ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]