Reading the "Interesting Question" post this afternoon, I had to make a
comment on people's perceptions. It is like the MD who stated that human
milk after one year was white, but it's just water. I wonder how people
can say these things with a straight face. But after so many years
around breastfeeding, human milk and breastfed children, I realize that
it is because they do not know much, if anything about the above and
therefore equate it to the thing(s) they do know about.
    This is the reason in classes or League meetings where the majority
of the group is expectant or soon to be first-time parents, I stress not
once or twice, but several times that the breasts are not bottles nor
the jug in the refrigerator (i.e. it is never full nor never empty). And
unlike the jug or bottle, the contents do not go "bad." I also try to
emphasize that while baby may be allergic or react to something mother
has eaten and passed on through the milk, it is very, very rare (almost
impossible) for a baby to be allergic to human milk - I try to avoid
never as someone would love to prove me wrong on that one.
    It is a shame that in our society, the bottle, formula and cows are
the standards that so many use to judge and assess breastfeeding and
human milk.

Leslie Ward
Vine Grove, KY
"Take your children with you whereever you go and be not ashamed." Hopi
proverb