Woolridge, Michael W.  1995
        "Baby-Controlled Breastfeeding: Biocultural Implications," in
Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, edited by Patricia Stuart-Macadam
and Katherine A. Dettwyler.  New York: Aldine de Gruyter.  Pp. 217-242.


Woolridge, M.W. and C. Fisher  1988
        "Colic, "overfeeding," and symptoms of lactose malabsorption in the
breast-fed baby: A possible artifact of feed management."  Lancet 2:382-384.

Woolridge, M.W., J.C. Ingram, and J.D. Baum  1990
        "Do changes in pattern of breast usage alter the baby's nutrient
intake?"  Lancet 336:395-397.

Woolridge, M.W., and J.D. Baum  1992
        "Infant appetite-control and the regulation of breast milk supply."
Children's Hospital Quarterly 3:113-119.


Also, let me say that in the course of working with Dr. Woolridge on his
chapter for our book, we had many long conversations about this, as I
thought originally that if the baby didn't finish all the milk at one feed,
then the next feed would begin with that higher-fat milk, but Michael
assures me this is not the case.  The fat globules adhere to the epithelium
until the baby's suckling dislodges them and they go out through the nipple,
immediately.  They don't dislodge with one suck and then sit around, and not
get expressed/ejected until the next suck.

I'm trying to think of a good visual analogy here.  Maybe imagine a wall
that has yellow balloons attached with velcro right next to the wall, and
then white balloons attached to the yellow balloons and completely covering
them, but only attached by static electricity (like when you rub a balloon
on your hair and then stick it to the wall), so they are easy to pull off.
You can't remove any of the yellow balloons until all the white balloons
have been removed first.  The white balloons are the low-fat ones, and are
easy to take off.  The yellow balloons are the high-fat ones, and are more
difficult to take off, plus you have to get all the white balloons out of
the way before you can reach them.  As soon as you stop removing white
balloons, someone else is coming along and putting new white balloons up on
top of the yellow ones to replace those you have removed.  If you don't
"stay on task" long enough to get all the white balloons off and then
continue and work harder to remove yellow balloons, then you never get any
yellow balloons.  If you take a break for an hour, when you come back, the
white balloons will be covering the wall completely again, and you'll have
to start all over.  If you constantly stop before getting the last of the
white balloons off, then you'll have plenty of white balloons in your
possession, but never any yellow.  As long as you stay on task, you can
remove all the white and get to the yellow, which is the goal.

Does this make sense??

I'm off to El Paso for a WIC conference, then to South Bend Indiana for an
anthropology conference.
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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