Breastfeeding problems

Sir, I read the brief report entitled, ‘Professional advice on common breastfeeding problems: a primary care study’ (March Journal) with some interest, but equal mystification. The article reminds me of many I have read in your Journal down the years where my interest has been aroused by the description of a potentially useful tool to improve practice, only to be frustrated by the absence of any description of the tool itself. The report begs more questions than it answers; for example, if responses to the initial questionnaire ‘reflect inconsistent advice for each question’, who is to judge that the designers of the questionnaire are in possession of the correct answers? The authors cite references regarding supplementary fluids, frequent feeding, poor growth, and test weighing, but without seeing the way in which the questions were phrased it is impossible to draw any conclusions at all. I shall write to the authors of the report asking for a copy of their questionnaire, and their version of the ‘detailed explanatory answers’, but why on earth could you not have saved me the trouble by printing them as an addendum?