Just wanted to jump in the discussion here...as a current dietitian starting to become an IBCLC the points raised in this discussion are important. First, dietetic interns are dietitians in training. They are are not registered to practice independently. They are acquiring 1000-2000 hours of supervised practice in a variety of settings to put into practice what has been learned in university classes. They still do have a lot to learn about the "real world" of nutrition. As experienced IBCLCs, consider asking the intership director for a chance to speak to the intern group - this is a usual practice in most internships and a great way for interns to gain experience about other health professions and to learn more about something they might not have received much training on. This brings me to my second point, I have attended or worked at 5 different prestigious state universities in the nutrition area. I have not seeen any of these schools give breastfeeding much attention. This is very surprising since breastmilk should constitute the sole source of nutrition for infants for the first 4-6 months of life. When I was an intern, I was very scared to do the pediatric rotations because I felt very unprepared to discuss infant feeding with mothers and other clinicians. I didn't know what to assess or what was normal. Sad but true. It took some time and education to become better at the job! I am grateful that in my new job at Pennsylvania State University I was invited to give a four lecture series on breastfeeding to undergraduate nutrition students. They watched videos of nursing women, we discussed latching in great detail, they learned about the relative unimportance of maternal nutrition in milk production, and they learned about assessment of milk intake and adequacy. It will take time for breastfeeding to become an integral part of the curriculum of dietitians, nurses, physician assistants, and physicians in training. Until then, IBCLCs should take every opportunity to patiently educate other health care providers about the importance of breastfeeding and how to clinically handle cases of failure to thrive. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html