In a message dated 9/8/98 10:26:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Nancy, what would you suggest then? We write breastfeeding as one word
 because it is a unique and special action involving breasts nutrition and
 and nurture. there is simply no such thing as non-nutritive suckling in
 abreast-fed baby: it's nutritive in many ways and via many means. I prefer
 "breastfeeding" infinitely more than "nursing" as in "nursing homes",
 nursing journals, nursing a grudge, and the rest. If we are to use any
 other word, it needs to be better than breastfeeding. >>

I wish I knew what to suggest.  That kind of creativity is not one of my
gifts.  However, I think that all of those wonderful reasons you gave for
using Breastfeeding as one word include nuances that are completely lost on
the general population (including most nursing mothers!)  So I maintain that
to most people it simply connotes feeding by means of a breast.
"Nursing" on the other hand has the unfortunate connotation of sickness.  But
if you consider it, all of the examples --even nursing a grudge--connote
exactly those aspects of the breastfeeding relationship that are excluded by a
"feeding" word.

Chele M & I have gone around & around about this, obviously without
resolution.  Some brilliant Lactnetter needs to come up with the perfect word.
Maybe there's another language that uses a word that we could transpose.

Nancy