Babes in Arms – blogging about select baby carriers and slings from around the world

by Pinky McKay

An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, infant massage instructor and mother of five, Pinky McKay is the author of  ‘100 Ways to Calm the Crying’, Sleeping Like a Baby and Toddler Tactics (Penguin).

Website www.pinkymckay.com.au

“I feel like a really bad mother,” confided Sarah, mother of four month old Molly who, apart from an early bout of colic that was overcome with some simple changes to Sarah’s own diet, has been an easy, happy baby who rarely cries. Sarah explained, “the other mothers at mums’ group all talk about hungry cries, tired cries and angry cries and I am sure I wouldn’t recognise one cry from another.”

It seems there is nothing like infant crying to stir up confusion and strong feelings among mothers – and anyone else who wants to offer their ‘two bobs worth’. How often do we hear, crying is good for the lungs (like bleeding is good for the veins?), or if you pick him up every time he cries, you’ll make a rod for your own back (don’t you like a cuddle if you feel teary?).

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by Dr Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC.

There are now a multitude of studies that show that mothers and babies should be together, skin to skin (baby naked, not wrapped in a blanket) immediately after birth, as well as later. The baby is happier, the baby’s temperature is more stable and more normal, the baby’s heart and breathing rates are more stable and more normal, and the baby’s blood sugar is more elevated. Not only that, skin to skin contact immediately after birth allows the baby to be colonized by the same bacteria as the mother. This, plus breastfeeding, are thought to be important in the prevention of allergic diseases. When a baby is put into an incubator, his skin and gut are often colonized by bacteria different from his mother’s.

We now know that this is true not only for the baby born at term and in good health, but also even for the premature baby. Skin to skin contact and can contribute much to the care of the premature baby. Even babies on oxygen can be cared for skin to skin, and this helps reduce their needs for oxygen, and keeps them more stable in other ways as well.

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by Jan Hunt, M.Sc.

Jan Hunt, B.A. Psychology (Magna cum Laude), M.Sc. Counseling Psychology, is the Director of the Natural Child Project, an attachment parenting counselor, and a member of the Board of Directors of the CSPCC (Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). She is also a member of the advisory boards of Holistic Moms Network, Child-Friendly Initiative, and Attachment Parenting International.

On a recent Internet radio show¹, I emphasized that babies are the true experts on parenting. I added that I often ask new parents if they wish they had an expert living with them to help them to figure out what to do next! I told the radio audience to “Just look to the baby. If you’re doing something wrong, the baby will tell you. If you’re doing something right, the baby will tell you that too. Babies know exactly what they need.”

The interviewer neatly summed up these thoughts by adding, “People say the baby doesn’t come with a book, but they do… the baby is the book!” Exactly. It is the baby – and only the baby – who knows just what she needs. She will give us immediate feedback on everything we do. A baby will tell us with frowns and tears when a legitimate need is not being met, and with bright smiles and cuddles when we meet her needs in a loving way. If parents can recognize and embrace this concept, parenting can be much simpler and more joyful than when the baby’s communications are mistrusted and questioned.

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Position Paper 1: Controlled Crying

Issued November 2002; Revised March 2004
The Australian Association for Infant Mental Health Inc. (AAIMHI)

AAIMHI aims (in part) to: improve professional and public recognition that infancy is a critical period in psycho-social development, and  work for the improvement of the mental health and development of all infants and families.

Definition

Controlled crying (also known as controlled comforting and sleep training) is a technique that is widely used as a way of managing infants and young children who do not settle alone or who wake at night. Controlled crying involves leaving the infant to cry for increasingly longer periods of time before providing comfort. The intention of controlled crying is to let babies put themselves to sleep and to stop them from crying or calling out during the night.  AAIMHI is concerned that the widely practiced technique of controlled crying is not consistent with what infants need for their optimal emotional and psychological health, and may have unintended negative consequences. Read the rest of this entry »

by Pam Leo

Pam Leo is a Parent Educator in Gorham, Maine. She has been a student and teacher of human development for more than 25 years. She is a mother, a grandmother, a parent educator, childbirth educator, a doula, a feature writer for Parent & Family, a motivational speaker on parenting and birth, and a sponsor of community education events. Her life work is to “help create a society in which all parents have the information, resources and support to raise children who can realize the promise of their potential.” For more information visit www.connectionparenting.com

“One of our most important parenting tools is literally at our fingertips.” – Pam Leo

In many other cultures babies experience abundant touch. They are and always have been breast-fed, massaged, carried or worn in slings during the day and beside their parents at night. Cross-cultural studies show that infants, who are cared for in this way are: more social, more alert, less fussy and restless, sleep better, have smoother movements, and better intellectual and motor development than infants who spend the majority of their time out of human contact, untouched, in infant seats, car seats, swings, strollers, and cribs. Touch is one of our basic needs. As early as the 7th week of pregnancy, a baby reacts to touch. Touch is the earliest sense to develop and the last one to leave us at the end of life. Studies show that both people and animals develop very slowly and even die if they are denied touch. Mariana Caplan, in her book, Untouched, states that, “Many people actually become sick because they are touch-starved. Dr. Theresa Crenshaw explains that touch alters the chemical composition of the body and states that, “Lack of touch is as detrimental to health as lack of Vitamin C. Children crave and biologically need nurturing touch for the nervous system to develop normally and for optimal growth and development. Read the rest of this entry »