Hi, Roberta and the rest of you!

It is very easy to forget that all of you are not just right here within this
city sometimes, isn't it? Just like the abbreviations can be a stumbling
block, so can mentions of shows and books and other nationally (but not
internationally) known figures....

Dr. Richard Ferber is fairly well known in this country. He has a book whose
title I can't remember exactly--something "How to Get Your Child To Sleep."
His method involves putting the child (baby) to bed and patting them on the
back, walking out, and letting them scream for 2 minutes, going in and
patting them again, walking out, letting them scream 5 minutes, etc etc. Each
time you increase the length of time you let the kid scream until he finally
goes to sleep. Many parents have used this method and swear by it.

Ferber addresses the question "how do I get my kid to sleep?" And for that
question, he seems to have an effective answer. To me, though, the more
important question to ask--and the one that Dr. William Sears addresses in
his book "Nighttime Parenting"--is "How do I meet the nighttime needs of my
child?" Ferber's method is a lousy answer to that question, in my humble
opinion.

Unfortunately, for sleep-deprived parents looking for help at night, they are
more likely to reach for a book with Ferber's title than Dr. Sears since the
Sears' book implies that they have to do something at night.

Asking the right question is the key here. It is kinda like asking "what can
I feed my baby?" Formula is a reasonable answer to that question. The more
important question to ask, though, is "How do I meet the nutritional,
emotional, physical, health needs of my baby?" Formula is a lousy answer to
that question!

Loved your description of lactnetation problems!!

Melissa Vickers, IBCLC
Huntingdon, Tennessee
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