Marie says,

<< Is it really that important to daddy to bottle feed the baby? Do men have
 bonding issues? And why do the other kids need to get involved? I don't know
 if I could trust a 2 year old to bottle feed my baby. >>

I suspect it is because in many cultures, but ours especially, food=love.  If
you eat the food I make, then you love me, and it is a way I can demonstrate
how much I love you -- by cooking for you and feeding you.

We all do lots of bonding w/ one another around the table.  Eating together
is a social institution.  And I think that there is a pervasive, though
incorrect, assumption that the only positive thing that is done for a
"non-responsive" infant is to feed her.  The baby responds to the bottle by
taking the food -- and the parent is rewarded by seeing the baby respond to
this love.  For many people this is the only reward they can see w/ a
newborn.  So, we have a job to do -- to help society realize that there are
many ways they can interact positively with a newborn other than by giving
him/her a bottle.

How many fathers are absolutely thrilled by giving Jr. the strained peas, I
ask you?  No, it's because there are so many other ways the father can
interact w/ that baby by the time it's ready to take solid foods.  Besides,
giving a 6 month old solids can be quite messy.

Jan Barger -- somewhere in WV on the way home from a wonderful week in the
(very hot) Outer Banks.

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