Dear all: Actually solids should COMPLEMENT the breast milk, not replace it. Kay Dewey did a great talk at the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine several years back on the topic of when solids end up doing what they shouldn't - replace the breast milk. It has nothing to do with when the food or the breast is offered. They found it didn't matter. What did matter was how many times the food was offered. If I remember correctly the study was done in Mexico so I am assuming these were not the sleep trained babies we encounter, they were more likely to be on cue feeders and probably nursing more at night. So, the critical juncture seemed to be 5 feedings ore more a day of solids in the 9-12 month range started to REPLACE the breast milk. Now, this may differ with some of our heavily sleep trained babies. What solids offer is NOT calories. Most solids are less dense in calories and therefore do not improve weight gain. What they should offer initially is a source of iron and zinc which appears to be in the 6-9 month range for most infants (yes, there are exceptions we all know). I remember the theory went that we were clubbing those random free range animals and chewing up bits of meat and sticking it in our babies mouths in our preagricultural era. Remember - free range in an environment that doesn't contain our current chemical stew and, because they weren't congregated into pens where bacteria can proliferate, they weren't filled with antibiotics. Best, Susan Burger *********************************************** 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