I was only too pleased to see the recommendation specifying that
babies should be nursed when they show increased alertness, activity,
rooting, etc.  and especially that "crying is a *late* indicator of
hunger.

  In a paper I am writing for my Gender class on how maternal
care is better for women and babies, I had given a fairly lengthy
description of the average !Kung (a gatherer hunter tribe in
Sub-Saharan Africa who still live the way humans lived for 100,000
generation ) mother's style of feeding and nurturing, including the
fact that the breast is offered immediately with any fretting
(sometimes the breast is offered before baby frets, if mom has
something else to do that is not conducive to nursing soon, as Kathy
Dettwyler mentioned a few posts back).  So according to one
anthropologist who studied the tribe, a baby frets for only an
average of 6 seconds before being offered the breast.  Imagine how
happy I was to end my paper with AAP policy giving this nearly
identical "Stone-Age" advice.

 This means, of course, that you should
be near enough to your baby to recognize the beginning signs of
desire to nurse; in other words, on your body or pretty darn near it.
 Anybody else notice this subtle but wonderful support on the AAP's
part of attachment parenting?  Great!  I am so pleased that the
formula mongers haven't got the leverage to buy these men and women,
at least.

Joy Berry-Parks           "Childhood decides."  Sartre
Anthropology student, LLL leader
Attachment Parenting Group of Arkansas