Sarah Vaughn writes that the idea of recommending six months exclusive bf originated with the 2001 Kramer and Kakuma article, but I suspect that article was prompted by the industry-driven recommendations for 4-6 months of exclusive bf in most of the western world, which had replaced previous advice to wait until 6 months to introduce complementary foods. I know that when I was feeding my first child in 1981, I did so in accordance with what the professor in my maternal and child nutrition course said the evidence supported at the time, which was exclusive bf for six months. My health care provider, a GP in a large HMO, as well as the professional midwives who cared for me in the beginning, were all in agreement and my contemporaries had all been given the same advice. It was the recommendation in Norway before I moved here in 1984, but was changed to 4-6 months when the industry lackeys on the working committee responsible for revising the guidelines won the power struggle over it. In 2000 the guidelines were revised again, to support exclusive breastfeeding for six months, and the industry has been fighting it in really dishonest and underhanded ways ever since. The revision involved a comprehensive review of the current evidence at the time and the Kramer article had not yet been published. I would be happy indeed if our health visitors could be more relaxed about the six month exclusive bf recommendation, but in the other direction! Most seem to be recommending 'tastes' of solids from 4 months, and they refer to the mythical window for accepting new tastes as justification: unless you start offering taste samples by 4 months, you won't be able to escalate to the required amount by 6 months, if ever. When a baby is thriving on breastfeeding, and I mean thriving - growing beautifully, passing developmental milestones as expected and just generally bouncing around pleased as punch, but has reached the magical age of 182.5 days on breastmilk alone, 'hammering' barely begins to describe the combination of threats, scaremongering, and cluckings of concern about malnutrition and even child neglect mothers are subjected to if the baby is not devouring at least two large helpings of iron-enriched commercial infant cereal plus 'dinner' daily. The number one suggestion for how to get the baby to take 'enough' other foods (enough for what? never elucidated upon) is to restrict access to the breast or wean altogether. I wish I were joking but this is in fact commonplace all over the country. The pressure to start weaning is massive, far greater than the purported pressure to breastfeed here. And it is applied as though 100% of babies are ready to cease breastfeeding more than 2-3 times in 24 hours by exactly 6 months of age, to the minute. As you can see, this really winds me up. I don't hammer on mothers, and especially not about feeding. Would dearly love to have a mallet in a room filled with policy makers and health visitors where I could keep them penned in until I'd tapped them all on the head as many times as it took to get this point through their heads, though. Rachel Myr, haranguing away in Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome