This discussion re how much better we would be if we were bf inspires me to share something which taught me a lot: It's a very humbling story . A friend of mine at work had a granddaughter who was bf for several months (close to a yr, I think) and developed serious environmental allergies and asthma anyway . She was always sickly and eventually, she died at age 5 from asthma related problems. One day, my friend asked me, "why do people always say bf prevents allergies, etc?'. I explained how kids may be SICKER if they don't bf. But to be honest, my friend's question always stays with me, and I think of it often, and I personally am much less quick to think "how much BETTER everyone would be if we had been bf." Of course everyone would be better, HOW MUCH BETTER we just don't know. I don't know if I'm really clear - but my point is, we can't judge; we don't know everything. Elaine Mazgelis, RD, IBCLC WIC BF Coordinator Cambridge-Somerville, MA ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. *********************************************** 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