At school we had two children whose families travelled with the fair (amusement stalls and rides etc). They didn't start school until they were eight and said that this was because they had milk from their mother's breasts until then. Only one of them had had milk in this way because she was the only 'true Romany'. Has anyone else out there come across this as an aspect of Romany culture? I should imagine that it would be well hidden given the hostility in non Romany culture towards breastfeeding a child old enough to walk and talk. A former work associate remembers a Gipsy woman feeding her child through the school bars in this way in Wisbech about 20 years ago when her children were at school. A midwife I met who had worked in Yorkshire (about my age 39) had worked with another older midwife who remembered it being normal practise in her childhood in Darlington for children to be breastfed by their mothers through the bars of school gates at break times. At that time children didn't start school until 5 or 6. Any more information on this area out there? I really know nothing about Romany culture except that my family was allowed to watch Flamenco in Spain at a Gipsy party as a very small child purely because my parents had me and my brother with them, so we met their high standards of behaviour towards little children, ie not leaving the children behind to have a good time. Susan Stockwell UK _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. *********************************************** 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