This whole debate--Ezzo or otherwise--about how often to put the baby to
breast is absurd.  Sorry, but it's true.  Don't any of our friends in more
"traditional" societies, where babies are constantly carried next to the
breast, find this to be a crazy notion (where babies take a nip whenever
they want or in co-sleeping where moms don't even know they've nursed 6
times during the night)?  No one would dare ask a mother kangaroo how often
her baby nurses, would they?  Well, I believe it's our own Dr. Kathy D. who
did the analyses of humans and milk fat content, that shows with our low
milk fat content, we should constantly be carrying our babies.  And, the
$100,000 reason?  Because we need to feed almost constantly--okay, so every
1/5-2 hours if THE BABY GETS TO DETERMINE IT.  I know that there are highly
respected people (my favorite being Dr. Jack) who say that if babies are
getting enough milk at a nursing (via compression or otherwise), then they
don't need to nurse for really long periods, constantly.  Even so, many
babies really need to suck and the milk fat comparisions do support the
fact that baby seals are different from baby humans (and so are the milk
fat percents).  Kathy D. would you care to add some more eloquent analyses?
I just get so frustrated by people trying to "control" bf that my fingers
can't even type.  One major benefit of bf for control freaks (I am an
admitted reform-ing control freak) is that bf on demand, cluster nursing,
or just "go with the flow" nursing can really alter ones' whole approach to
life and parenting.  Whew...thanks for letting me rant a bit.
Chris

 Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC   email: [log in to unmask]
                HSR & Health Educational Consultant