Yes, they do. 

Two short stories about how my kids "got it" at a very young age. 

In the summer of 1988, I was pregnant with my second born baby, Rebecca. 
Her sister, Sarah was just around her second birthday. We were at my OB's 
office, and the receptionist made an announcement that the OB had been 
called on an Emergency  Birth (the other two docs in the practice were 
already at the hospital, it must have been a busy day) and that those of us 
waiting could wait for an other hour or two, or the Receptionist would 
schedule an appointment for whoever requested it asap.

An other woman, there with her new baby for a 3 wk check up, and myself 
decided to stay. My dd had paper and crayons, a snack and some books, so 
we were OK. The other woman's baby started to cry after a while. She and 
the baby's grandma gave the baby the remnants of what appeared to be the 
leftovers of a bottle of AIM she had started earlier. The baby continued to cry 
with hunger. She asked the Nurse if they had any Baby Formula. The nurse 
said they didn't take free samples and had none. The mother then asked if 
they had any water. The nurse went to the tap with the bottle, and the 
mother yelled "No, she can only have bottled water! Tap water makes her 
sick." There then ensued a rush, with baby screaming, and mom and grandma 
increasingly becoming more and more agitated, to find, somehow, a bottle 
of "baby water" prepackaged, in the building. The baby cried and cried (mom 
actually took her out of the car seat, it must have been bad!) the nurses were 
running around the building, searching. Finally, a bottle of AIM company 
prefilled water was found, given to the baby and there was silence. 

My 2 year old approached the mother (I had no idea what she was going to 
say, although she was always concerned when babies cried, and loved babies, 
even I was surprised at her question) and asked the mother, "That baby was 
really sad. Why didn't you just nurse her?" Again, there was silence. The 
mother looked at my 2 year old dd, and said, "I don't do that." Sarah was 
completely confused. Being brought up surrounded by LLL friends, many of 
whom were still nursing at her age (she had weaned by this age) and my 
traditional Italian family, it seemed bizarre to her that a baby wasn't breastfed. 
We had a talk on the way home about the fact that some moms just don't 
breastfeed. And, in all honesty, I couldn't answer all her questions as to "Why 
so many don't, Mama? Babies love Nummy." 

Fast forward nearly 20 years. My youngest child, Hannah, and I were watching 
Mystery Diagnosis, or something like that. A baby on the show was very, very 
sick. The parents and the narrator and their doctor repeatedly said, "The 
baby's formula was changed again and again, but she could tolerate none of 
them and only continued to deteriorate with every new formula." Hannah 
looked at me, with what I could only describe as confusion mixed with anger 
and said, "Did they even TRY to give her Nummy Milk? Maybe that's the reason 
the baby is sick in the first place. All they are talking about is that canned 
stuff!" Again, I couldn't answer the question my child had asked in all 
innocence, and intelligence. (this is the same child who a few weeks ago did 
an informal survey of her second grade class, on the playground, to see who 
was breastfed and for how long. She told me, "Mama, *all* the kids in the 
Smart Group were breast fed. Some until they were in Nursery School, like me. 
Only a few in the regular class were nursed at all. Some of them didn't even 
know what it was. Why?" (She is in the Gifted Program......) 

*sigh* I am glad my kids do "get it." I wish answering "Why?" when they 
encounter babies who are not breastfed was less daunting. 

Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLLL

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