Hi! Thought y'all might be as pleased as I was today over this discovery, especially in light of all the aggrevating press/ads that seem to be so abundant these days! We ate lunch at Arby's today (roast beef fast food joint) and on the tray was a sheet entitled "Breakfast Trivia." It had a series of trivia questions, with the answers printed in smaller print upside down. One question was: "What is considered the near-perfect breakfast protein and why?" The answer: "The egg. It supplies your body with all the essential amino acids in the proportions necessary to manufacture protein. Nothing else other than Mother's milk provides everything needed in terms of protein, vitamins and minerals." Now, granted this is a minor mention and in small, upside down print to boot, but it is somewhat akin to all the commercials for totally unrelated items that choose to show a baby drinking from a bottle. Arby's did not have to even mention milk, and I suspect there are many companies that would have gone out of their way NOT to mention it. And the mention is a recognition of breast milk being the gold standard. Perhaps when the day comes that breastfeeding is the cultural norm for this planet, we will see more of these casual references to the obvious, and perhaps the day will come when we don't feel the need to announce every one to colleagues!!! One other comment, and I can't remember who wrote the post about the pp nurse teaching the bf class and saying that giving the bottle has the advantage of knowing how much baby is getting. Perhaps it should be pointed out to her that while we can tell how much baby is getting this way, we do not know whether baby is getting the amount he is needing or in the composition he needs! The analogy can be made about an adult sitting down to a plate full of food. If someone else fixes the plate of food and we are forced to eat that amount, one of three things will happen: 1. The amount on our plate is what we want and need. 2. The amount on our plate is really more than we want or need but we eat it anyway and feel overstuffed because of it. 3. The amount on our plate is less than what we need or want and we either fuss immediately, or head for the kitchen long before the next scheduled feeding. If someone is guarding the kitchen door until the clock says it is time for us to be hungry, we are not going to be happy campers. Seems like enough has been said by various experts about the negative consequences of the "clean your plate" or else routine that it is not difficult to understand that the bottle can easily become the original "plate" to be "cleaned," thus setting up lifelong eating difficulties. Melissa Vickers [log in to unmask]