Nancy-- What a struggle you had with your baby, and I'm sure being an LLL Leader made it all the harder to bottle-feed. Good for you to perservere and get the baby to the best. I remember reading in LEAVEN a story about a Leader in S. Africa who had a baby with galactosemia, so couldn't bf. I cried reading that, knowing how it would have hurt me to bottle-feed, especially having already bf a baby. I once worked with another Leader who had a baby who was FTT (her 5th baby, first time she'd ever had weight gain problems with one) and had to tell her to start supplementing, and start right away.. She was grateful for the direction, and did finally get the baby bf completely, but told me later how she'd gone through all the guilt and agony associated with a skinny baby, including not going anywhere, and when going out, dressing the baby in several sleepers to make her look bigger. And the agony of a Leader needing to use that "other stuff" can be horrible--I'm glad you related your story for us, to remind us to be diplomatic and delicate with women's feelings. At LLL meetings I often use a little spiel encouraging the mothers there not to be judgemental about women who are bottle-feeding, because we have no idea just why they are not bf, and that we don't want women who are bottle-feeding to be made to feel the way bf mothers were not so many years ago (and still made to feel in many places). I've had many women thank me for the "speech," saying they'd never really thought about it that way before. We can't afford to develop a generation of righteous bf women who make other women feel like inferior mothers. We need knowledgeable mothers who can support all women, regardless of how they feed/nurture, and maybe those women who didn't breastfeed will with their next baby. I'm actually pretty good now at counseling women who have decided to stop bf due to what are for them insoluble problems (and what is soluble to one is not necessarily to another), and trying to preserve their self-esteem during that very difficult time. Off this particular soapbox for now... Leslie Ayre-Jaschke, BEd, IBCLC Peace River Breastfeeding Clinic Peace River Alberta, Canada