Someone writes: "I don't tout bf babies as the norm, at least not those born in the US. Perhaps it is normal for babies who are born drugged and traumatized, fed too infrequently (and often fed AIM), separated from their mothers, and whose mothers consume the Standard American Diet to stool infrequently, but how would this apply to the biological norm?" Let's not assume that ALL US breastfed babies experience life as described above. Many do, but many do not. Here's a sample of two, and then one: two babies born with a minimum of drugs (a little stadol in the IV each time about 2/3 of the way through labor), not traumatized, fed several times an hour around the clock (for years), no formula ever, one separated for the first 4 hours after birth, the other one never separated, and the mother consuming a diet healthier than the typical US diet, with little meat, lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies -- Both kids grew well, were fat and happy, and after the first couple of weeks, stooled once a week or less -- those big huge messy stools that fill up their sleepers and ooze out over the top. The third child is the one with Down Syndrome, had easy delivery but then one week of IV feeds, abdominal surgery, didn't come home for three weeks, had breast/bottle combined til 4 months, then just formula, grew slowly, though also fat and happy like the other two. Stooled at least once every day, a modest amount, though occasionally he also would skip 3-4 days and then have a "blowout." No food or other allergies in any of the kids, now ages 21, 16, and 10 years. Well, Peter is allergic to fire ants, but that's from living in Texas. I don't think we know enough about this topic, but it is certainly "common knowledge" among many LLL mothers that breastfed babies MAY be of the variety that stools only once a week and makes a huge mess of it, or they MAY be of the variety that stools with every breastfeeding session, making the mother spend a fortune on diapers. Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** 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