I have been following the salmonella discussion with interest, since I have the impression that salmonella is pretty common here in Israel (maybe because I hear about it from my family on a kibbutz, which is basically a farming community). I have several questions for anybody to pick up on: WHYEVER would the doctor recommend stopping bfing a baby with salmonella? I read that many different animals can get salmonellosis (hence the poss infection from that Easter egg) - in addition, can an animal act as a vector? Could this baby have "caught" it from a pet who brought the nasty bug into the house from outdoors on his paws? Does the baby crawl and put his hands in his mouth? Does he play in an outside sandbox? Hope these questions, which immediately came to mind, help. If I am way off base, sorry. Know how they say you turn into your mother? Reading this over, I am grinning all over my face, remembering how my mother had fits when my husband "introduced" each of our newborns to our pet dog...... Seriously, animals do not wash their paws, and once a baby starts crawling, you have a lot to consider when looking for source of infection. PS: I AM a dog and animal lover and we now have two dogs. All three of my kids have had ringworm infections, and one got rickettsia, but not from our dogs, from a puppy that was not cared for. My personal opinion is that pets are almost a must for kids, but that special vigilance is required to protect said kids. Judy Knopf