First: I want to answer the question about donating blood after taking
malaria medication.  We are in the Foreign Service, and have been posted to
"malaria areas"(try saying that six times fast).  The concern is not that
there will be a residual effect of the drugs in your blood, but that there
might be the possibility that you are carrying malaria.  In fact the last
time I donated blood in the Wash,DC area the Red Cross asked for donors to
specify if they had been to malaria areas so that their blood, while not
sutable for transfusions, could be used for studies.  I believe the waiting
period for donating is two years.  Second:  I hope that finger feeding and
suck training are used with great care.  My own personal experience with
finger feeding my fifth- a low wt, failure to thrive baby was that he
developed pretty bad "nipple confusion" when being finger fed and in fact
did much better when being fed properly with an orthodontic nipple.  Third:
I had to pump for three months and bottle feed this little one.  It was very
hard for me to bottle feed in public even though it was my own milk.  Please
remember, when you see a mother using a bottle in public, you don't know how
she came to be where she is at this moment with her baby.   I bottle fed for
three months so that my baby could grow and thrive.  He is five now and
still nursing.  I still prefer to see moms nursing in public, but try not to
judge having "been there".   Nancy Sherwood LLLL &IBCLC in Perth, Australia