I don't mean to be uncharitable, but . . . (meaning, I really do mean to be uncharitable!). Anyone who thinks that the few extra minutes of time spent "with a baby who can't feed at breast" makes up for not giving him pumped breast milk is seriously clueless. It doesn't take that long to pump -- either with your hands or with a breast pump. The poor kid started life with a cleft palate, and now he'll have a host of other health problems and a lower IQ, just so his mother can spend an extra 40 minutes a day with him? I just don't understand, sorry. Even if it took 6 hours extra a day, it would be worth it to make sure he got breast milk. I just can't understand the logic of people who give up breastfeeding and breast milk so easily. And whenever I read about clefts, I think about the 5 year old in Mali with a bilateral cleft of the palate and upper lip -- who breastfed for two years, just like everyone else. His mother reported no trouble at all breastfeeding him, and acted puzzled as to why I would even ask if she had had any problems. I saw a baby this past week who was born at 7 lb. 12 oz., eventually lost down to 5.5 lbs. Was very sleepy for the first three weeks, and who couldn't seem to get her tongue working properly to breastfeed. So . . . the mother is bottle-feeding. This is someone who certainly should know better. I saw them in a social situation, so did not ask "Why in the *hell* aren't you pumping for this baby? And why didn't you contact the IBCLC whose number I gave you?" I have never seen a mother less bonded to or interested in her baby. I wonder if the lack of bonding led to the decision to give up on breastfeeding so easily, or if the giving up on breastfeeding led to the lack of bonding. Sad. :( _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html