This is a resubmission that may have been garbled. While reading Alicia's bit, it made me think of how true and how important it is as LC's to plant seeds while not alienating the mom who chooses not to bf or who decides to wean prematurely. A few weeks ago, I came across an 18 year old single mom at the Health Unit's Well Baby Clinic. She has a 2 year old whom she breastfeed for a 2 week period after which she decided to hand express for 1 week, then weaned because she found expressing, going to school, and resuming her social life too demanding. I remember telling her at that time of the benefits of breastfeeding to both her and her infant while mentioning the fact that she should be proud that she had breastfed this child for this period ( at the same time that I was telling her this, I felt rather sad ). Shortly after weaning, this child became very fussy and was spitting often after her abm feedings. She had recurrent otitis medias. This child was pale, grey looking but did follow an acceptable growth curve. Meanwhile the maternal grandmother continued to breastfeed her baby for 9 months (the babies were born 2 months apart. Both moms had attended the same prenatal classes. The grandmother had breastfeed while supplementing this older daughter with abm for 2 weeks. She did the same with a younger sibling. The grandmother's breastfeeding goal was to breastfeed for a 4 month period as recommended by the WHO code at that time. The grandmother's baby was alert, pink, elastic, contented and was never sick. The grandmother would phone to ask information from time to time. You should have seen the look of personal accomplishment when she finally stopped at the Health Unit one day to show off her infant and to tell us that she had bf twice as long as originally planned). Back to my 18 year old. This time her concern was " how to continue to breastfeed her 4 month old while going to school versus how to wean and go to school". She remarked on how healthy and how happy this infant is in comparison to her older sibling. She strongly feels that the baby's contentment and health is due to breastmilk. As Alicia says, " moms may feel differently with their next baby". How true!! It teaches me patience and it reassures that I am doing the right thing. I realize that I may never reap the seeds that I have sown but it does not stop me from fertilizing and watering these precious seeds from time to time. Rosemarie Allain RN, BScN, IBCLC St Paul, Alberta, Canada