Hi, Roberta and the rest of you! It is very easy to forget that all of you are not just right here within this city sometimes, isn't it? Just like the abbreviations can be a stumbling block, so can mentions of shows and books and other nationally (but not internationally) known figures.... Dr. Richard Ferber is fairly well known in this country. He has a book whose title I can't remember exactly--something "How to Get Your Child To Sleep." His method involves putting the child (baby) to bed and patting them on the back, walking out, and letting them scream for 2 minutes, going in and patting them again, walking out, letting them scream 5 minutes, etc etc. Each time you increase the length of time you let the kid scream until he finally goes to sleep. Many parents have used this method and swear by it. Ferber addresses the question "how do I get my kid to sleep?" And for that question, he seems to have an effective answer. To me, though, the more important question to ask--and the one that Dr. William Sears addresses in his book "Nighttime Parenting"--is "How do I meet the nighttime needs of my child?" Ferber's method is a lousy answer to that question, in my humble opinion. Unfortunately, for sleep-deprived parents looking for help at night, they are more likely to reach for a book with Ferber's title than Dr. Sears since the Sears' book implies that they have to do something at night. Asking the right question is the key here. It is kinda like asking "what can I feed my baby?" Formula is a reasonable answer to that question. The more important question to ask, though, is "How do I meet the nutritional, emotional, physical, health needs of my baby?" Formula is a lousy answer to that question! Loved your description of lactnetation problems!! Melissa Vickers, IBCLC Huntingdon, Tennessee [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] (only until Sept 10)