>La Leche League states frequently (at least around here ) that the average
>age of completion of weaning worldwide is 4.2 years. I have searched for
>this reference and finally found it in Ruth Lawrence where she says average
>age of weaning "prior to 1979" was 4.2 years. Unfortunately she does not
>reference this statement. Does anyone know where the reference comes from
>and what cataclysmic event occured in 1979 to change things? (Something to
>do with Chinese BF habits??? - a wild guess!)

A couple of years ago, a professor from Stanford challenged this
statistic, and as I had also wondered where it came from, I decided to
chase it down. First I contacted Dr. Lawrence's facility and learned that
their source for this number was "The Breastfeeding Compendium" by Ross
Laboratories from several years ago. I contacted Ross and received a
letter from their marketing manager explaining that they no longer had
this in their posession and could not tell me about the nature of the
collection of the statistics.  Dead end.  We may never know how valid the
study was that backed the 4.2 year number, and I no longer consider it to
be "fact".

-Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC