LactNet friends: Can those of you who have info about these topics also
respond to Dr. Craigen?  Particularly if you know of documented cases where
babies have died/suffered FTT after "doing" the Ezzo's program.  Thanks.




>Return-Path: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 13:33:45 -0600 (CST)
>X-PH: V4.1@mail
>From: Doug Craigen <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Infant Feeding in Ancient Israel
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Hello Dr. Dettwyler:
>
>First a few words of introduction, I'm  PhD Physics graduate from U of
>Waterloo who has been a physics professor at a couple of Canadian
>Universities before moving on to do product developement research in
>private industry.  One of the things I miss since leaving Academic life
>is that I no longer have such easy access to large libaries and authorative
>references.  Hence it is harder to feel that I'm getting good answers to
>questions outside of my field of expertise these days.  I came across your
>name while combing the internet for information sources to do with a
>concern I'll describe below.  You seemed to be the best person to pose a
>couple of questions to.
>
>I have four children from 6 weeks to 7 years old, all natural births (two
>at home, though only one by plan), and nursed to an average of 1.5 years
>more or less "on demand" feeding.  At our church a group of new parents
>has recently started a course on preparation for parenthood which
>purports to provide God's perspective on the matter.  My wife and I saw
>no reason for joining since we have been quite happy with the results of
>our parenting techniques, however we did borrow the 8 tapes that
>accompany the course to find out what these new parents are learning.
>The course is by the Ezzos who are promoting their own breastfeeding
>technique (a sort of flexible to accomadate parents need 3 hour
>schedule).  So far we have listened to the first four tapes, and suffice
>it to say that I am not impressed with their method and am shocked by
>their sweeping condemnations of all other methods.  Most of the first
>four tapes has been devoted to demonstrations of all the problems with
>demand feeding.  I'm looking for good material to provide this new
>parents group with some credible alternative points of view.
>
>I guess I have two questions for you.  First of all, have you ever heard
>of the Ezzos and if so are you aware of any credible independent analyses of
>their techniques.  Second, at one point they suggest that Jesus himself
>would have been raised by a scheduled feeding technique (not that this
>should really matter, I'm not about to start transporting my family by
>donkey either).  The argument was that in an ancient Israel life was
>hard (eg having to walk to a town well and carry your water for the day,
>etc) so that they would have had to have lived by a rigid schedule.
>Mothers (especially once they had several children) could not have
>afforded to get off schedule, hence they would have scheduled their
>infants feeding like they did with everything else.         Are you able
>to assess how good or bad an argument this is?
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>* Doug Craigen            |      (204) 947 - 9064                      *
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>
>
>
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
Specialist in infant feeding and child health
College Station, TX 77843-4352
e-mail to [log in to unmask]
(409) 845-5256
(409) 778-4513