Another point to remember when discussing how much of the available milk a baby gets in what amount of time is that these figures refer to the "average" baby. If the "average" baby takes 10 minutes to get 80%, then some babies take only 4 minutes, and other babies take 16, and a few babies may take 32. An "average" baby is a statistical construction. Some babies are "barracudas" and eat fast and efficiently and want to go do something else. Other babies are slow and/or inefficient nursers and like to linger at the breast, maybe looking around, holding the breast in their mouth without really suckling much for a while, falling asleep for little mini-naps, etc. Some babies only want to nurse until the edge is taken off their hunger, and then go play, and will be quite happy to nurse for 3 minutes and then be taken off the breast, *as long as* they can come back in 20 minutes for another 3 minutes of nursing. You have to know a whole lot about your own baby's particular strengths, personality, and style, before you can tell how often and for how long s/he needs to be at the breast to get sufficient milk. Each of my children had different styles of nursing. One size doesn't fit all -- because no baby is average! Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. Texas A&M University