In response to the letter to child magazine posted by K. Dettwyler. I agree
with almost everything you said in their letter and agree that their reasons
for weaning are ridiculous.  However, there is an important adage in medicine
"Never say never". I have seen children who have nursed so much in the second
year of life that they eat little solid food and thus start to lose weight.
Of course this is not a reason for all mothers to start weaning their
children at 10 months. Rather what I tell mothers in that situation is to
have the breastmilk replace all other DRINKS (no need for juice or cows milk)
and encourage the child to eat varied solid food. Then they usually do fine.
Also the cases of Rickets reported in NJ recently were from women who only
breastfed, no solid food for two years AND were darkskinned AND did not
expose their children to any son for religious/modesty reasons.
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*  Deena Zimmerman MD MPH                          *
*  Department of Pediatrics                        *
*  UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School        *
*  1 RWJ Place                                     *
*  New Brunswick, NJ 08903                         *
*                                                  *
*      phone (908) 235-7248                        *
*      fax   (908) 235-7345                        *
*      email  [log in to unmask] (internet)        *
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