Thanks, Kathy D, for staying on the soapbox as long as necessary.  The WHO
guidelines are clear and not at all bombastic.  That may be the problem.
Many busy practitioners want a quick and dirty rule to follow that applies
to every situation, and can't handle the innate ambiguities of a
recommendation which requires constant use of clinical judgment.  Allow me
to relate an anecdote exemplifying this.
In my local BF group we had a member for a time who exclusively BF her son
until he was well over 2.  Gradually it exceeded the tolerance of nearly all
the group members as she passed all our personal deadlines for introduction
of solids.  I continued to support her while NEVER concluding that this was
an ideal practice which all others should emulate.  I supported her because
her son was growing well, all other aspects of his development were right on
target, he had other foods available and was uninterested in them, he was
not anemic as evidenced by blood tests, and there were other factors in
their situation which made BF very important to both of them.  He is now a
calm and confident child of nearly seven, was entirely weaned just over two
years ago, still normal size for his age, has a more broadminded approach to
food than most children his age, has never had any tooth decay despite
unlimited night BF for two years, and last year he became the big brother of
a little girl who started solids at about 6 months.  Different kids,
different needs, and mother and father are again doing a superb job of
meeting them.  If they can do it with no medical or nursing background, why
can't HCPs?
Expressing (myself) in Kristiansand, Norway
Rachel Myr
[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html