Hello! A friend recently made a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey California, and she came back reporting on the new children's interactive section which recently opened to the public, featuring a permanent display of a five foot high free standing BABY BOTTLE!. The display compares the quantity of milk a baby whale consumes, compared to a baby human. There is a window box in which are displayed bunch of REAL Playtex-type baby bottles. and then the children can open two little doors and see a picture of a baby whale nursing and a picture of a human baby BEING FED A BOTTLE, presumably by his mother (but hey- maybe it's actually the nanny ? :-) Anyway, the text of the display is something to the effect of: WHEN YOU WERE A BABY, YOU DRANK SIX BOTTLES OF MILK A DAY. A BABY WHALE DRINKS TWO HUNDRED BOTTLES A DAY. ( and/or it may also have said something about liters- she couldn't remember for sure) When my very shocked friend pointed out that her child did not recognize bottlefeeding as the way to feed babies, and further pointed out that she herself also did not recognize bottlefeeding as the natural and appropriate way to symbolize human infant feeding, the response from one employee was "Well, we couldn't put a BREAST up there!" Naturally she pointed out very sweetly that they could most certainly find a beautiful depiction of a mother breastfeeding. The two aquarium employees she spoke with quickly agreed with her, and she was encouraged to write a letter. Would you all like to join us? The address is: The Monterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row Monterey, California, USA BTW, speaking of beautiful depictions of breastfeeding mothers, I just returned from Italy, where I visited many churches and museums containing LOTS of beautiful paintings of mothers breastfeeding- and one thing I noticed was that the children being nursed were almost always very large- at least two years old, seemingly, on average... Sue Jacoby, LLLL & IBCLC