Tesse: The best I can do for now on the references for touch enhancing weight gain is a short list from the Kangaroo Care research: Ludington-Hoe, SM, Golant, SK. Kangaroo Care: the best you can do to help your preterm infant. NY: Bantam, 1993. Anderson, GC. Current knowledge about skin-to-skin care for preterm infants. J. Perinatol. 1991: 11;216-26. Bergman, NJ., Juisso, LA. the "kangaroo-method" for treating low birth weight babies in a developing country. Tropical Doctor, 1994: 344;782-85. Sloan, NL, Camacho, LWL, Rojas, EP et al. Kangaroo Mother method: Randomised Controlled Trial of an alternative method of care for stabilised low birth weight infants. The Lancet, 1994: 344; 782-85 I do have the list for massage, but we're just at the end of a 1200 sq ft addition (including a new office suite for me to see patients--for those who want to come to me instead of vice versa). I do hope this helps, as I am usually a reference fanatic. I've been flying unincumbered by all my paper these days. Warmly, Chris --Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC [log in to unmask] 1807 NW Beca Ave., Corvallis, Oregon 97330 541-753-7340 mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, homeschool mom, researcher, scientist, author, organic gardener, photographer, wilderness adventurer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner;) *********************************************** 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