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From:
Rachel e-mail <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 20 Feb 2000 16:58:57 +0100
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After following the discussion on this topic I feel I must speak up for the genderblind faction.
Of the most hard-core BF problems I have seen, girl babies have predominated, when I look back on it.  I never thought about gender as a factor at all until this thread started.  In fact, we joke here a lot about boys inheriting dad's interest in, and enthusiasm for, breasts, when we see them starting out to be "boobaholics" (excuse the possibly derogatory sounding term, I assure you that in Norwegian it is only used endearingly) on the first or second day of life.  Girl boobaholics are also treated endearingly and their behavior is not attributed to inherited sexual attraction.
I have, of course, met baby boys who didn't have a clue what to do at the breast.  But I can honestly  say I have never noticed a gender pattern in 12 years of working post-partum and doing BF guidance every single working day in my career.  What I have noticed after three years of doing PKU heel sticks is that many boys seem to have a more coordinated aversive response to pain-- some of them nearly rise up and crawl away-- and have higher muscle tone than many girls.  I emphasize that this is a subjective impression, and my overwhelming impression is that there is far more individual variation within each gender than the variation between the averages of the two.
BTW, my daughter was a doll and teddybear maniac from when she could focus her gaze, while my son was only interested in things that went "round and round"-- wheels, gears, windmills, sprinklers, ANYTHING mechanical at all.  Both were born expert nursers with very similar styles and are loving warm teenagers now, while their approaches to absolutely everything else have been as different as two members of the same species can be.
Whew! Glad to get that one off my chest (breasts?)
Rachel

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