Hi All,
I wanted to add a thought on this thread myself.  PJ is "still" almost
exclusively BF.  He has no "meals" of solids by any stretch of the
imagination.  He will eat a variety of solid foods, but breastmilk is 98% of
his diet.  There are several reasons for this, for us.  One is that only in
the last couple of months has he really been grabbing at my food, and
whatever I have that he can eat, I give him.  Another, is that he really is
a nursing fool, and given the option of solids or breast, he'll take a
nosedive into the breast in a heartbeat! :)  One other reason is his teeth.
Not because I am limiting the solids, but he is because it hurts to eat.  He
is no longer biting anything, and if he eats a cracker, he has learned to
scrape it across the top of his bottom teeth in order to get the bits to
much on.  He loves cheerios and really likes it if I break things into
pieces for him.  But, he is also very temperature sensitive, so if he does
get mashed fruit (applesauce or pears/peaches, etc) it HAS to be very warm
or he cannot tolerate it at all.  He refuses to drink any liguids other than
breastmilk from the breast for the temperature reason as well.  The one
thing that I am looking forward to re: his getting crowns is that he will no
longer be in pain from his teeth.  How long it will take him to realize he
can bite things again will be interesting to see.  ANyway, I digress...
To make a long post short, I am glad that there is no problem with a baby
being mainly breastfed for 12 mo (or even more in some cases).  Where is the
research that says "All babies MUST start solids at "X" age or they will
never learn to ..... and they will starve and become malnourished..." etc.?
I want to see the double blind studies, with thousands of children, all the
statistical data, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that proves all this
garbage they throw at new moms.  It annoys the hell out of me when some
Dr/nurse/family member tells a mom they have to start solids at 3/4/5/6 mo
of age or else....When the mom hears that PJ is still BF for 98% of his diet
she is amazed and relieved because she can see that there is no harm in
waiting until the baby is ready.

When will these people get themselves educated?  I fail to understand how
professionals can be allowed to give out information that is based soley on
their opinion and not on education.  We would never allow a Dr of medicine
who specializes in foot care to go out and hang up a shingle on his door
claiming to be a dentist, would we?  And it still amazes me that women do
not ask their care providers what education they have in lactation.
OK, I'm ranting...sorry.

Jay (back to my corner...)
Jay Simpson, CLE
Sacramento, CA
"No Miracles performed here, just a lot of love and hard work."
ICQ#4681696