Hi all.  My family and I were at the National Aquarium in Baltimore
yesterday and the hit of the visit were the dolphins.  On our way into the
show, I turned to my two year old son and said, "Do you know what dolphin
Mommies and Babies do?  They nurse!"  To which he responded, "Nnnnnooo!"  I
countered with, "Yes, they do!"  He then got a silly grin on his face,
said, "Yup!" and proceeded to pat my chest and say, "Urt!"  (Can you guess
what our "code word" is?  It used to be "urse" but somehow the /s/ has
turned into a /t/......)

On level under the auditorium (next to the windows where you could look up
at the dolphin pools) they had a spot for further dolphin information.  One
short film and narration was labeled "nursing" and actually showed a
dolphin nursing!  They even talked about the fact that dolphins nurse
during the dolphin show!  I did query one of the people who work with the
dolphins as to how long they normally nurse.  She said it varied from dyad
to dyad and was from "6 months to several years."  She didn't know what led
to the earlier weaning of some and the later weaning of others.  Ah well,
I guess there aren't many LCs for dolphins to document the facts.... ;-)

Linda V., Philadelphia, PA
who wonders if the Monterey Aquarium is aware of how their competition
handles the bf issue...?????