Carol wrote: > what i find sad about these situations, having recently had a call from a > relative along the same lines "my 9 mo old is weaning himself, what can i > do?," is that it becomes apparent that the closely attached parenting > lifestyle that we tend to expect and hope that breastfeeding will encourage, > does not necessarily happen. plenty of mothers are able to breast feed, that > is, feed their baby with their breasts, but not allow the feeding to turn > into nurturing. this is painful for me to understand but i do see quite > clearly what it involves This is so common isn't it. I had a discussion with a pregnant woman while doing a duty at the toy library (didn't want to tell her I am a midwife and (hopefully nearly ) aspiring LC but someone else did) about breastfeeding - " I had to force my child to drink at 9 mo, there was nothing left, then I weaned him because I had no milk" I'm sure so many women do get by in terms of milk production and feed q3-4h but there are many who will "run out" with this kind of schedule. Think that all 9mo are in danger of weaning themselves - so much else going on for them! Interesting reading the discussion on frequency of feeding. I too have never looked at the clock and thought no, it's not time for a drink - put a breast in that child's mouth mdh would say if they cried. I did think,oh no, only a 20 min (or whatever) sleep, but it seemed to easy to just slip the breast in - who can be bothered waiting. I did however pump and return to work with the first 2 at a youngish age - they had irregular bottles of ebm, never formula, and fed for around 2 years. They both used dummies, #2 a lot. I had periods at 5 weeks and 5 mo postpartum respectively. Now #3 is 10 mo, feeds very often and is worn a lot, even tho I *thought* I had done that with the others - and no periods! No dummy either (never liked them,I must admit) Frequent feeding is frowned upon - but I often explain to parents that it is food, drink, comfort all rolled into one. when you ask how often they eat, drink, chew gum or talk/phone/e-mail/fax/hug etc someone in a day it is usually at least 10-12 times or more.... seems like another reasonable analogy. I guess this is all linked with the dependence issue we have discussed of late. Fiona Hermann midwife Hamilton New Zealand *********************************************** 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