Dr. Doren Fredrickson's work (he's an MD/PhD from Kansas) suggests a dose-response relationship for breast milk and health outcomes. The more milk the baby gets, the better the health outcome; the longer the baby gets breast milk, the better the health outcome. Some of the studies that included duration of breastfeeding found statistically significant health differences between formula-fed babies and babies who had only had a few days of breast milk. The more the better, but every ounce of liquid gold will help enormously. Dr. Fredrickson's chapter in "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives" talks about this dose-response relationship and cites a number of studies that support this view. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. email: [log in to unmask] Anthropology Department phone: (409) 845-5256 Texas A&M University fax: (409) 845-4070 College Station, TX 77843-4352 http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html