attachment parenting

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
attachment parenting
1781
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 3:17pm

A woman I know (I used to work with her dh) practices "attachment parenting". Here is a definition (for those who don't know what it is):

"Attachment Parenting includes respecting your child's needs, feeding on demand, and answering your baby's cries. Other parts of Attachment Parenting include co-sleeping, nursing on demand, sling or other baby carrier wearing, and cloth diapering. Not all Attachment Parents practice all of the above, but never the less love the idea of Attachment Parenting and comforting their children.

Attachment parenting uses mild discipline methods and avoids all physical or emotional punishment, such as inflicting shame on a child for inappropriate behavior. Children are encouraged and allowed to sleep with their parents, and you treat your bed as the family bed. Meeting your child's needs according to the child's time frame during the early years of development is an essential part of attachment parenting. Children will be allowed to grow and learn at their own pace and not according to standard time frames."

What do you all think of attachment parenting?

I don't see attachment parenting as something a WOH parent could do, or could they? What do u think?

I am also curious to see if SAHPs vs/ WOHPs will have different opionions on this topic.

If anyone here practices attachment parenting - was your decision to do so closely linked with your decision to be a SAHP?

josee

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Avatar for mom34101
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 5:34pm
Yes, and if that were the case, you couldn't even breastfeed. It's inherently comforting.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-2005
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 5:42pm
Do you have any scientific date whatsoever to support the idea that breastmilk is bad for a toddler's health, and that low fat cow's milk is better for a toddler's health than is breast milk? I've done a lot of research on this issue in the past, and never saw anything at all to support this idea. So, I wonder from where you got it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 5:58pm
I understand BF being harder when it is not a part of your fmaily history. Family support got me through my early nursing issues with my first and I don't know if I could have hacked it without my the support (especially from my mom and sister who had BTDT).
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 6:06pm

Don't have time to post much but this link which very much support that's BM is still superior even past infancy. I too, have never seen anything that proves BM should be limited for a toddler, or that cow's milk is better.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 6:08pm
I've also read over the years that brain activity is less when watching tv than when sleeping.

Dj

"Now when I need help, I look in the mirror" ~Kanye West~

Avatar for myshkamouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 6:09pm

Watching tv does not make anyone fat. Poor diet and lack of exercise, health problems and genetics do. "

Um actually what do you think people are missing when they are sitting in front of the tv for long hours at a time? Exercise. Even walking around the house is much better than sitting on the coach watching TV. Sleeping is better.

"Watching tv for 3+ hours a night after an active day and proper meals will not. I watch alot of tv, it is how I unwind."

Well good for you. But you've missed the point. Point is not all people have an active day, and so they go from one sedantary thing to another. And that *does* help make us a very fat society.

" I have always been a tv watcher and I weigh 115lbs. I even snack. TV doesn't make people fat, it is choices people make plus genetic makeup"

Yeah, choices like sitting around all day long vs moving ones body. Like watching TV instead of doing even moderate exercise. Choices like that do make people fat

Do one smidge of resesarch. Its a world epidemic, not just in the US...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4238386.stm

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-26-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 6:14pm
Then please elaborate how one poster said they tried everything to calm their scared toddler and nothing worked except nursing him? No doubt a hungry child needs the comfort of mom feeding him. However I don't see why someone would feed a child that isn't hungry because he is scared.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 7:44pm

Because nursing is *not* always about food. Sometimes it is ONLY about comfort.

"Comfort nursing serves a purpose, too. Studies seem to indicate that this type of sucking overall decreases a baby's heart rate and lets him relax. It seems to have a very positive effect on his whole physical and emotional well-being. Don't be afraid to allow this type of nursing. Breastfeeding is more than just imparting fluids and nourishment. It's a way to nurture your child as well."

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/toddlernursing.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-26-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 9:15pm
I disagree. I never breastfeed my children in order to calm them down. If they needed calming I held them, rocked them, cuddled them. Calming a child should be different than feeding a child. Nursing a baby to calm them down is no different than me giving my 4 yr old an apple to get her to stop crying. Just not something I want to teach my children. JMHO.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-26-2006
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 9:19pm

Here is something that I found that I think is just absurd and ridiculous. This statement here is what really gets on my nerves about the militant BFing mothers.

And if the child does become ill or does get hurt (and they do as they meet other children and become more daring), what easier way to comfort the child than breastfeeding? I remember nights in the emergency department when mothers would walk their ill, non nursing babies or toddlers up and down the halls trying, often unsuccessfully, to console them, while the nursing mothers were sitting quietly with their comforted, if not necessarily happy, babies at the breast. The mother comforts the sick child with breastfeeding, and the child comforts the mother by breastfeeding.

http://www.parentingweb.com/lounge/newman/nm_toddler.htm

I just don't get this. Absolutely ridiculous nonsense.

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