I have the same trouble. Our Patient Ed committee requires that all materials be written on a 4th grade level: no more than two 3-syllable words per 30 short sentences. The only way around this is to spell it out phonetically: colostrum (koh-LAH-strum). I am forced to split 'breastfeeding' into two words. Just think of all the 3-syllable words: lactation, engorgement, compression, lanolin, formula, microwave, refrigerator, gradufeed, pacifier, schedule, areola, diarrhea, constipation... They even decided that 'diaper' is a 3-syllable word as in: DI-a-per. No wonder only college educated women can learn how to breastfeed (she said VERY cynically!) Everything I have brought to the committee from LLLI, Best Start, etc, has been rejected because it's too high a reading level. They rejected the LLLI/Kiwanis poster because it was too busy, too many topics, pictures not relevant to the topic lines, not enough white space... Even Best Start materials in Spanish were rejected because of an inappropriate vocabulary: more Cuban or Puerto Rican than Mexican villager. ("OUR patients will never understand THAT word.") Obviously there are a number of moms in our census from south of the Border who have little to no schooling, but we are not allowed to discriminate by offering skills-appropriate materials to different patients. Who are WE to judge any individual's ability to read! HUH? Later, I got smart. I learned there is one sneaky way around the Pt Ed Com. Write your materials and use the Tools in Word to check for grade-level. When it qualifies, offer it to your Collaborative Practice Committees for review. They will accept the content more readily than the Pt Ed Com will. When it is approved, send a copy to the Pt Ed Com 'for their records.' Tell them what the grade level is and how you determined that. Tell them it has already been approved for use by the NICU, Peds, &/or OB Collab Prac Coms. Then copy it and USE it. Done deal! When the front door slams, go in the side door. --- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC --- Glendale, AZ, USA --- [log in to unmask] --- Scanned by Norton AntiVirus with auto-updates *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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