Here is a copy of what I sent to Ms. Aiken at ABC re: their presentation on extended breastfeeding: Dear Ms Aiken: You may be interested in the following excerpt from the AAP News (a monthly publication of the Amer. Acad. of Pediatrics). The AAP News is a resource for pediatricians, providing them with (among other services) quick reviews of new information gleaned from various pediatric journals. The following excerpt from the AAP News abstracts a clinical article which appeared in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, Dec. 1995: "...among a sample of American women who practice extended breastfeeding, the average age for weaning was reported to be 2 1/2 to 3 years. Most of the 179 survey respondents described weaning as "gradual" and "child-led." ... the findings support previous research showing true child-led weaning seldom occurs before age 4. Among the mothers sampled, 43% were college graduates, 25 % had graduate degrees and 94% were married. Many practitioners have never encountered long-term nursing, so unusual in North America that mothers might resort to doing it secretely, the study notes. Practitioners' lact of awareness regarding long-term nursing could limit their access to important information about the mother-infant relationship. Extended nursing has documented benefits and practitioners can be confident in supporting mothers who choose to nurse their children into toddlerhood and beyond, researchers conclude." AAP News, July 1996. Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas http://www.jump.net/~bwc/lactnews.html *********************************************** 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