Dear all:

The last time I spoke about Weissingerization - I apologized directly to the person involved 
because Ieaped to some conclusions (and if the person who was subjected to my frustration with 
all the phone calls about Toxic Breast milk that I received is reading this - I have still not forgotten 
my drifting over the edge and apologize all over again).  So this time I will try to be more delicate 
and thoughtful.

In the past, I have used the term "prolonged" lactation myself and I cringe every time I think that it 
is in print in a manual I wrote about using the HemoCue for surveys of anemia in nutrition 
programs in developing countries.  But r gives the impression that something that is quite normal 
is actually longer than is necessary.  So rather than talking about "prolonged" lactation, we should 
be using other terms.  For a child under two, I would never consider it "prolonged" it is the 
"recommended" duration of breastfeeding.  For a child over two, I would use "child-led" nursing.  

I'm sure others can pipe up with terms that can be useful.  With a pediatrician that does not 
understand some of the basic nutritional facts about the first year of life, I think using the 
appropriate terms to normalize the discussion about nursing for an "appropriately recommended 
period of time" would be helpful.

There are a lot of WHO references on appropriate intake and the LINKAGES website has a lot of 
1-2 page sheets on recommended intakes.  These are simple sheets designed for parents and 
primary health care practitioners and though the information is designed for international 
programs, the research on what babies need does not differ no matter where they live.

Nancy Wight may correct me on this, but Kay Dewey did an excellent presentation on infant and 
young child nutrition about two years ago at the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine conference.  
She really emphasized iron and zinc as the first two nutrients that are needed NOT calories.  Her 
explanation for this was that in our preagricultural times we were probably chewing up the 
random bit of meat (not corn fed and antibiotic ridden) and putting it into our babies mouths.  

In fact, during her presentation, she added information that was new to me about a study in 
Mexico or South America .  It was not when you fed the meals (before or after the breast) but how 
many meals that made a difference in growth and milk supply.  When you gave 5 or more meals 
between 9-12 months of age - there was too much displacement of the breast milk.  When you 
displace breast milk with a low calorie, low nutrient-dense food such as cereal, you can get a 
slowing in the growth rate.  So, I remember her suggestion of 4 small meals a day rather than 5 
small meals a day in the 9-12 month range and I believe the long-used recommendation of 1-3 
small meals in the 6-9 month range still held.

Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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