Weekend AP Roundup - Oct. 9-15

I've decided to start a weekly attachment/natural parenting link/article roundup, as often as I can manage it. Throughout the week, I come across lots of fantastic articles, studies, and videos that support natural parenting, and I'd like to share them with anyone who might be browsing through my archives looking for good reasons to love their child.

I'm posting a bit late this week... somehow, Friday was much busier than I expected, and I worked all day Saturday (although this won't be going on for much longer; I'm officially counting down the weeks until I can go back to devoting myself 100% to keeping the house and toddler from collapsing like a flan in the cupboard).



What is Crotch-Dangling? Why can't my baby face out?

"Most parents enter babywearing at the same place--structured carriers that they can buy from the local Walmart or Target. While it is wonderful that these products can introduce new parents to the joy and benefits of babywearing, most of these products are not made with baby and mother's health and comfort in mind."

A New Way of Seeing Children

"A child's rambunctiousness in public embarrasses parents, because our society expects children to remain silent and to behave as though they are mature adults - a most unrealistic and uncaring expectation. Expecting the impossible can of course only lead to disappointment and frustration for both parents and children. Just like adults, children feel most cooperative when treated with kindness, understanding, and faith in their inherent good intentions. No adult feels cooperative when treated in a threatening, angry way by a spouse, employer, or friend. In fact, we feel hurt and resentful when treated that way, and far from cooperating, we often resist or retaliate. Why then do we expect children to respond with good behavior when treated with anger, threats, or punishment?"

Birth from the baby’s perspective

"Picture this… A mother sits holding her newborn son on a postnatal ward during visiting time. One of her visitors reaches forward, grasps the baby by the head and pulls him out of his mothers arms leaving him dangling by his neck. Can you imagine the reaction of the mother and those around? Yet no one raises an eyebrow when this occurs during birth."

Study shows that infants feel and remember circumcision pain

"A study led by Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) researchers has demonstrated that not only do male infants feel pain during circumcision, they remember that pain six months later when they receive their routine vaccination. The results of the study, led by Anna Taddio, a graduate student supervised by Dr. Gideon Koren, head of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology at SickKids and a Professor of Paediatrics, Pharmacology, and Medicine at the University of Toronto, are reported in the March 1 issue of the British medical journal Lancet."

Several nations banning flu shots for babies

""The vaccines appear to be causing a pattern of neurological disorders affecting children and teens across the planet," said a report in India's Bharat Chronicle."

So, how *do* you recognize sucking vs. swallowing?

"On Monday I wrote about the importance of recognizing sucking and swallowing in figuring out what your baby is doing at the breast. It's how you can figure out if your baby is eating or nursing for comfort.* I think that this is more helpful than the common advice to wait until your baby comes off the breast on his or her own."

A mother's addiction

I will admit to having an unusual addiction to both Mothering Magazine and their forums at Mothering.com. If you've ever wondered if it's okay for your 15-month-old to take cell salts, there's a thread on that. If you feel alone nursing your 22-month-old, there are several threads for that. If your dentist kicked you out because you wouldn't do flouride treatments on your kids, there are threads on that.

Living in Oklahoma, I often feel like the only mom parenting the way I do (a little Montessori, a pinch of Waldorf, and a whole lot natural). I go out to Native Roots Market (if you're in Oklahoma and you haven't been, you should go; they help you be a more effective locavore) to do our weekly grocery shopping, and I'm the only one either wearing my toddler or allowing him to roam freely (under his daddy's watchful eye) rather than tying him into a stroller. Or we go out anywhere and I get sideways looks for nursing my rambunctious, rolling-like-an-alligator toddler (who would otherwise be screaming and pulling on my shirt and pointing at his 'nursies').

Mothering.com makes me feel less alone, and helps me to connect with other like-minded moms. Plus, they have a new blog: All Things Mothering. It will feature blog posts from other natural parenting mommies out there in the world. So if you're enjoying "Well, Naturally!" then definitely head over there and get acquainted with some other like-minded mothers.

My dear boy (a letter)

My dear boy,

I knew I had been cheated out of my tiny baby when the doctor held you up and I saw, for the first time, what had made people assume I was 'due any day now' when I was seven months pregnant. I assumed I would eventually get used to how large you were, because even though you were large, you were really actually quite small.

But something happened. Someone sneaked in and injected my breasts with MiracleGro (which, apparently works not only on breasts but on babies drinking from the breasts). I woke up one morning to find my breasts huge and my baby huger.

Weren't you supposed to lose weight in the hospital? Six ounces don't really count, especially since you more than doubled that by your first week's check-up with the pediatrician.

And now here you are, a nine-month-old ox. I envy my mommy friends with their babies in a Mobys and Kozys, smiling delightedly as their tiny infant rides high and dry on their mommy's chest.

Oh, I do try. I tie the Moby tight enough that tucking you into it is an Olympic feat... and yet somehow you end up dangling around the region of my pelvis, chewing contentedly at the hem of my shirt. And it alarms me each time I tie you on with the Kozy, and the seams in the straps creak.

I will keep trying, my dear boy, in the hopes that the muscle spasms in my back can at least keep the pain level down around a tolerable five. After all, I managed to carry a backpack full of books in junior high; why not a small elephant now that I'm 27?

I do wish someone would invent anti-gravity diapers for toddlers, though.

With much love,
Your MommyBeast