Anne, Thanks for responding. I should clarify a few things - the strategies for the gentle handling of nursing strikes, and how to differentiate them from premature weaning ( which I said would be most babies under 2 years old!) is covered in the text that I already wrote for the magazine. The questions they asked me to get a pedi quote for are those that you saw. Yes they are stupid, and the woman even said "we know you're the nursing expert but we always like to have an MD in there somewhere" I have no problem with complying with this if it gets good information out to moms who otherwise won't see it in this type of mainstream publication. Also I figured there has got to be a pedi out there who would say something like, "although ear infections are less likely to occur in BF babies, if they do happen handling the strike properly is critical so this baby has its best shot at preventing or minimizing future infections."" "loss of the nursing relationship could have longterm health consequences "blah blah- you now what I mean. This is an opportunity to describe 2 years as a normal nursing minimum in the context of defining nursing strikes.! I am working hard within the limits they set for me, to make this something other than a peice we would all have to write in and lambast (sp?) .I have again failed cyberspatially speaking, to download 2 recent lactnets successfully. I had to access Anne's comments via archives - thank goodness for subject lines - so if any MDs are willing to be quoted on these (silly) questions, please post again or to me privately. It is not easy working with these limitations but it's better than leaving it up to the London Timesesque "experts" in the field. Thanks in advance, Judy Fram, Brooklyn, NY [log in to unmask]