Does Your Kid Have a Lovey?
Welcome to the new and improved ADM Blog Hop (you can read more about the roots of this Blog Hop here). Our host this week is Sara over at Fred-n-Sara. Anyone can participate! Just post on the week’s topic and add you link to the Linky at the bottom of the post. Topic: Share how your child, or you, or someone you know, found and adopted his/her lovey and the importance of it in his/her life. As a bonus, feel free to add cute pictures of your little ones with their loveys. Aellyn does not have a lovey. Well, I guess her Dad and I are her lovey if by lovey you mean that comfort...
Read MoreDrop-side Cribs, Penises, and Vaccines
Recently, the Consumer Products Safety Commission banned the use and sale of drop-side cribs in the US. This certainly doesn’t bother me per se. I’m all for making any child product safer. However, this flury of news over the drop-side cribs is just so hypocritical! This is why; Drop-side Cribs vs. Co-sleeping The CPSC is one of the loudest squawkers about the dangers of babies sleeping in adult beds. Their campaign used the statistic that between 1999 and 2001, 180 babies under two died as a result of being in an adult bed. This statistic is based on an article...
Read MoreFrequently Asked Questions About Sleeping With Your Baby
This post is part of the 2010 API Principles of Parenting blog carnival, a series of monthly parenting blog carnivals, hosted by API Speaks. Learn more about attachment parenting by visiting the API website. I often get asked the same questions about our Family Bed1. Aellyn has slept between my husband and I2 since the day she came home (she also slept in bed with me at the Birth Center – something some hospitals will not allow). We bought a cosleeper – a small bed with rigid sides meant to go between Mom and Dad on a big bed. It only lasted about 5 minutes because it...
Read MoreShould It Be Illegal to Bed Share With Your Infant? Indiana Thinks So.
Thanks to Annie at PhD in Parenting for making me aware of a recent Fox News story about co-sleeping. I was able to track down the ad from the Indiana Department of Child Services that is meant to “encourage” people to put their baby in a crib. [flickr video=4581905626 secret=f836d05631 w=400 h=300] This ad is positively outrageous! Talk about fear-based marketing. The fact is that many cities health departments are taking a strong stand against the time-honored1 tradition of bed sharing. Handing out T-shirts like this to new parents: Despite ample research to dispel...
Read MoreParenting in the Dark: A Co-sleeping Story
My legs feel heavy like they are immersed in thick mud and can’t move. My head has that floating feeling that accompanies the land between sleep and awake. As I open my eyes the room is bathed in the soft green light of the cool-mist humidifier at the foot of the bed. Next to me, curled on her side facing me is my daughter. We aren’t touching but she’s close enough to me to feel her breath on my face. Beyond her is the steady breathing of my husband. He is also on his side facing me – like guardian parenthesis standing sentinel around our baby. I can...
Read MoreCrying is Good for a Baby’s Lungs
This gem of parenting advice from the turn of the century is unfortunately still in circulation. It is usually a quick follow-up to “if you jump up every time he/she cries you’ll spoil them!” Both of these are completely false. Here are some reasons why that tug in your heart that is telling you to go pick your baby up is correct. Increased blood pressure, cortisol, and heart rate. “Documented immediate and long-term sequelae of crying include increased heart rate and blood pressure, reduced oxygen level, elevated cerebral blood pressure, initiation of the...
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