>>As one mother told me "on one side I have God....on the other, you"  I was
not shocked to find out whose opinion rated!  I have since developed a
philosophy that is a lot like  you can lead a horse to water....but you can't
make them drink.<<

Wow, Stephanie! Those are the kinds of cases that can drive one crazy. The
question that I would like to gently ask these people is, "Does God's design
for parenting this baby conflict with God's design for feeding him
(breastfeeding)?  I am a firm believer in the integration of God's various
designs and can't imagine that He would starve a baby to discipline it.
Depending on the parent's faith, you can usually find passages to support
breastfeeding, too.

My other thought was to warn the mother that her feeding philosophy might be
considered dangerous and that, if the baby continued to suffer, CPS might be
called in to intervene. If I said this, I would look for the right
opportunity and try not to do so threateningly, but more as a concerned
friend. An explanation of Peter Hartmann's work showing that some mothers can
store and provide much more milk at one moment than others might also help to
convince her as to why the rationale of limited feedings *can't* work for
every mother-baby dyad.  Extrapolating from that scientific information, the
mother must then wrestle with the validity of the spiritual advice that
doesn't work for all mothers.

-Lisa Marasco, BA, LLLL, IBCLC