History of Infant Sleep in Western Industrialized Societies An Excerpt from Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions

By James McKenna, Biological Anthropologist and Pediatric Sleep Researcher

Sleeping next to your child should instinctively be the most natural way for parents and babies to sleep. It is only in recent history that mothers, in the relatively small Western industrialized world, have had the dubious luxury to ask two basic questions: “How will my baby be fed?” and “Where will my baby sleep?” 

No human ancestral or modern infant was ever separated from its caregiver, nocturnally or at any other time. What an odd notion for a mother to leave her helpless child all alone to sleep in an entirely separate space! Yet, today, people have been taught to be afraid of bedsharing. They have been warned that bedsharing will lead to parents unwittingly crushing their helpless infants, making moms and dads increasingly paranoid. How did we arrive at this unnatural conclusion?

There are a lot of reasons. Western fear of bedsharing can be traced all the way back to 500 years ago, in major European cities such as Paris, Brussels, Munich, and London. Historians have documented that Catholic priests in these cities condemned infants and parents sleeping in the same bed after poor women confessed to intentionally crushing their babies in bed in attempts to control family size (1, 2). While this is an interesting historical factor to consider, there are also many pertinent cultural factors that more directly relate to our current condition.

First, there was the development and production of artificial human milk, or baby formula, and society’s emphasis on the alleged benefits of bottle-feeding. Bottle-feeding enabled mothers to spend more time apart from their babies. With rising affluence in the middle class and an increased value placed on individualism, separate bedrooms for parents and children became more common and culturally fashionable. Family members, childcare experts, and pediatricians stressed the importance of solitary sleep for the child and intimacy for the parents.

By the mid-1900s, it became very common, for the first time in human history, for babies to be bottle-fed and then placed to sleep on their stomachs (to promote uninterrupted sleep) in a room far from the sensory range and supervision of their parents. It did not work out very well for babies. This development gave rise to the epidemic of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Culture changed, but the human infant’s need for breastmilk and contact with the mother’s body did not. 

I touched on the social values of autonomy and independence earlier, but our desire to raise independent children has led to a false belief that they must be independent from the very beginning of their lives. Parents worry when their infant dislikes sleeping alone or craves their attention. This ignores the fact that infants are, biologically, contact seekers who are—and should be—dependent on parents and caregivers. Yet, in attempts to raise self-reliant children, many parents have decided that it’s best for an infant to sleep alone, allowing their ideological beliefs to guide their parenting technique, rather than scientific research or even their instincts.

Parental instinct has also been undermined by Western medical authoritative knowledge. With the rise of science and technology, people began to trust “authorities” and “officials” more than their own instincts. However, current recommendations for infant sleep originated mainly from white men, many of whom never cared for their own infants, and based their conclusions not on empirical scientific research, but on their ideological beliefs. And parents heeded their advice.

Pediatricians and childcare experts erroneously claimed that separate sleep promoted an infant’s ability to “self-soothe,” and would lead to infants becoming independent children and more satisfied adults. Opponents of cosleeping falsely claim that “problems” are inevitable and that social skills and independence might only be obtained by children through the minimization of parental interventions and contact, supported by solitary sleep. Nothing could be further from the scientific truth.

What we have come to learn in recent decades is that if any developmental differences can be associated with sleeping arrangements, the opposite of common beliefs is true: it is cosleeping children, and not solitary-sleeping children, who appear to be more independent (3). 

Unfortunately, the cultural legacy of independent sleep remains truly ingrained in Western societies, perpetuated by pediatric sleep “experts” whose training took place when most mothers were feeding their babies formula or breastmilk substitutes. But the world has shifted away from formula-feeding. With breastfeeding mothers now in the majority, infants sleeping in separate rooms has become impractical owing to the fact that breastfeeding requires short intervals between feeds.

This historical and cultural context makes it easier to understand why it was assumed that early nighttime infant separation from the parents was necessary to produce happy, confident, emotionally healthy, independent future adults, alongside magnificently energized parents. Without any anthropological or biological studies, which would have cast serious doubt on these assumptions, separate sleep spaces and controlled bottle-feeding were promoted. 

And so we arrive at the classic image of a sleeping infant in Western industrialized societies: alone, detached, sucking on a bottle, without any parental contact.

References:

  1. Flandrin, J.L. (1979). Families in Former Times: Kinship, Household and Sexuality. Translated by R. Southern. (Themes in the Social Sciences.) NY: Cambridge University Press.

  2. Kellum, B.A. (1974). Infanticide in England in the later Middle Ages. History of Childhood Quarterly. Winter; 1(3), 367–88.

  3. Keller, M.A. & Goldberg, W.A. (2004). Co-sleeping: Help or hindrance for young children’s independence? Infant and Child Development, 13, 369–388. doi:10.1002/icd.365

This is an excerpt from Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions, which will be published by Platypus Media in January 2020. Visit www.SafeInfantSleepBook.com for more information.

— Published on December 5, 2019

Nature-Deficit Disorder Explained (and Great Ideas for Family Outdoor Fun)

 

Nature-Deficit Disorder Explained (and Great Ideas for Family Outdoor Fun)

 

Since it’s inception by Richard Louv some 15 years ago, the term “nature-deficit disorder” seems to have been steadily gaining popularity. Appropriately, the meaning of the term also seems to be proving itself more true with each passing year. In general, children are spending less time outdoors, and it could have a negative impact on their overall health and well-being. 

 

If you’re new to the concept of nature-deficit disorder (NDD), or simply want to know more about it, these resources can help. Along with essential information on NDD, you will find plenty of fun outdoor activities and ideas that the whole family can enjoy. 

 

Nature-Deficit Disorder and Its Effects 

Though it’s common, NDD is not something to take lightly.

 

Is Nature Deficit Disorder Real?

What Is Nature Deficit Disorder and How to Know If You Have It

How to Protect Kids from Nature-Deficit Disorder

 

Changes to Make in the Home 

There are plenty of things you can change at home that will reduce nature deficiency.

 

7 Effective Ways to Limit Your Kids’ Screen Time – Recommendations

34 Fantastic DIY Backyard Ideas for Kids That Are Easy to Make

Home Science: Backyard Astronomy Basics

 

Fun Trips to Take 

From national parks to museums, here are some top-notch ideas for family trips. 

 

Best American National Parks to Visit with Kids

7 Inspiring Sculpture Parks and Open-Air Museums Around the World

Top 10 Living History Museums in America

50 Bucket List Family Adventure Trips

How to Plan an Awesome Family Vacation on a Budget

 

Choosing a Team Sport 

Playing a team sport can benefit more than your child’s physical health.

 

Children, Sports, and Exercise: Choices for All Ages

6 Great Benefits of Participating in Youth Softball

What Are the Benefits of Soccer for Kids?

6 Reasons to Encourage Your Child to Run

 

If you’re worried that your child might be nature-deficient, you can start righting the ship today. Look for changes you can make at home, outdoor family trips you can plan, and team sports that your child might enjoy. In no time, you’ll likely see the positive effects that spending time in nature can have on your child!

How to manage your child’s sleep while traveling for the holidays

How to manage your child’s sleep while traveling for the holidays

Have you ever had even just a little anxiety around traveling somewhere and what it might do to your child’s sleep?... I think we all have!! Unless your child is a unicorn sleeper, sleeps well anywhere and no amount of traveling disrupts their sleep. In that case… good for you!!

But for most of us travel and sleep do not seem to go hand in hand, but I’d like to offer that they could!!

Travel always seems to be a tricky endeavor where naps and nighttime sleep can get a little (or a lot) wonky. There’s always something exciting going on… maybe friends and relatives who are anxious to see the baby, or maybe once you arrive at your destination there’s too much to do/see, or maybe you’re just throwing caution to the wind with no sleep plan during your travel/vacation times. But you might find that your child’s sleep never really returns back to what it was pre-travel.

So here are some sleep tips you can take with you in planning for your trip, once you are at your destination and once you have returned home that will help ease the sleep hiccup that is travel:

Building up to travel:

1. Don’t over-pack, but don’t under-pack either

Bring along baby’s blanket, lovie and sleeping clothes. Anything that smells familiar and reminds them of their home sleeping environment will help them get to sleep in their new surroundings.

And if you can, even bring a Pack&Play, your own white noise machine (or free app), and monitor. Ok, so this might feel like overpacking, but you’ll thank me later… I promise! And having the monitor might allow you to grab some dinner down the hall if you’re staying at a hotel. My husband and I have done this MANY times, which was great because we didn’t feel stuck in the room once our boys were laid down.

Travel day has arrived!:

2. Plan to start driving around a nap

This will depend on age, because at some point you need to just get in the car and get going, but for younger babes taking multiple naps… hop in the car right when they would normally go down for a nap. Often-times babes will sleep better from the motion in the car, but this might buy you a couple hours of quiet before babe wakes up and wants to play, or eat, or the worst kind… wants to get out because they decided they hate the car seat!

Once you’re there:

3. Try to maintain your home schedule as best you can

Changes in the routine are the quickest way to end up with an overtired child. And if you had a great sleeper before, overtiredness will almost undoubtedly cause a reemergence of any bad sleep habits you’ve worked so hard to prevent.

If your child is tired and cranky, you’re going to have a lousy time. Sticking to the schedule and keeping babe well-rested will assure that the time you do get to spend with friends and family is fun, happy and relaxed.

4. Don’t skip naps, or push bedtime to later

As tempting as it may be to let your child skip a nap (if he/she is still taking them), or let bedtime fall back an hour or two, so that you can fit extra activities in, I highly recommend you resist the temptation and stick to the schedule you’ve kept at home. Overtired could definitely rear its ugly head here, too.

Once you’re back home:

6. Right back to the same routine before you left

Bounce back into your old routine like you never left. If babe knew a good solid routine and schedule before-hand, there’s comfort in the familiar and it will make returning home that much easier.

Some might argue… we’re on vacation and we’re going to have fun! TOTALLY! DO IT!! But the wheels might fall off too much while being away from home; this is often where I hear problems occurring. Families get back from travel and they just can’t get back to the way sleep was before they left and they just end up dealing with the night wakings, or co-sleeping (where they didn’t do that before). So just know that you can absolutely get back into some good solid sleep habits, even if your child wasn’t the greatest sleeper before you left.

If you need some sleep help, I’d be happy to guide you from a space of exhaustion and possible frustration, to knowing EXACTLY what to do in all sleep situations (travel included) and feeling much more well rested!

Happy trails/travels!

Charleen McDaniel

Happy Baby Sleep Consulting

www.sleephappybaby.com

(916)605-6198

To book a FREE Sleep Evaluation call, click on the link below:

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14657648

4 Super Simple Tips to Help You Save on Your Pregnancy and Baby Needs - Guest Post By Emily Graham (Mighty Moms)

Preparing for the emotional and physical aspects of pregnancy can be a challenge. Preparing for everything else? Well, that can actually be pretty easy — and budget-friendly too — if you have the right tips and resources. So, no matter where you are in your pregnancy journey, these are the steps you can take to get yourself and your home ready for parenthood.

Stock Up on Clothing in Different Sizes

You already know how much your body can change with every week and month of pregnancy. But even after giving birth, your body is bound to be different than it was before. Because you won’t have a lot of time to shop between feedings and naps, think about picking up some post-pregnancy options ahead of time. One essential all new moms need is a supply of nursing bras. Check out deals online to see if you can save on different styles and sizes to suit your needs. You may even be able to find promotions for maternity bras that offer a discount when you bundle bras together. If you need clothes and essentials during your pregnancy, you can also find a great selection of budget-friendly maternity options by shopping with retailers like H&M and Target, and you can usually find promo codes that will provide additional discounts.

Prepare Some Simple, Low-Cost Meals Now

If you are winding down the last few weeks of your pregnancy, you’re likely busy nesting and making final preparations to welcome your new baby. However, don’t forget to make preparations to care for yourself as well! Finding time to prepare healthy meals can be difficult for new parents, if not downright impossible. Since ordering out and fast food are not the best options for nurturing your healing body and new infant, preparing whole food meals ahead of time and freezing them or purchasing  easy freezer meals may be your best bet. There are tasty and convenient options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but also be sure to stock some grab-and-go snacks in your pantry as well. Bulk buying meals and snacks may seem like a pricey option, but you can easily find online grocery coupons that can help you stay within your budget. So, be sure to take advantage during your pregnancy and after you give birth.

Save on All of Your Nesting and Nursing Needs

Once you have your freezer full of yummy meals, you can get back to nesting. After all, this is an important part of any pregnancy journey. So, if you feel a strong urge to organize the nursery or stockpile diapers, don’t fight it — just go with it and have fun doing so. There are so many creative nursery setup options you can choose from. You can stash all those diapers in a rolling cart for a mobile changing station or upcycle a thrift store dresser to fit your decorating scheme. Speaking of furniture, outfitting your baby’s room with a crib, changing table, and other essentials can get expensive. So, make sure you know how to save money on the furniture you need to complete your nursery. Mostly, this involves buying furniture that will grow with your growing baby, so you don’t have to keep spending more and more.

Consider a Baby Shower to Stock Up on Supplies

Remember that part about stocking up on diapers? Well, you will definitely need an arsenal of diapers and other supplies, such as bottles, bibs, and blankets, to care for your little one. Fortunately, you can reduce your costs by having friends throw you a blessing way or proper baby shower. It’s perfectly fine to ask guests to bring a package of diapers to the shower or blessing way, and most people will bring an additional gift as well. Be sure to list your desires on the invitation, and also be sure to list the stores where you are registered. Many of the best spots for registering for baby gifts are also the best stores for saving money. Target makes this list once again, but you can also help your friends and family members find great deals with other retailers.

No one is ever 100 percent prepared for pregnancy. However, you can at least use these hints to help your life and your budget feel less overwhelmed.


Photo Credit: Unsplash

Emily Graham | emily@mightymoms.net

Mighty Moms

"Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled. They are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles." - Sharon Jaynes

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Newborns hands. Why are they always in the way while breastfeeding?

Oh, those sweet little newborn hands.  Such a love/hate relationship we breastfeeding mothers have with those hands.  We love to hold and kiss those sweet-smelling hands, yet when it’s time to breastfeed, those annoying little clawing paws won’t get out of the way!  The minute our breast is out and ready to feed, those newborn hands are like defensive linemen, blocking any entry into our baby’s pecking mouth.

So, what’s the deal with those hands?  

Why is it that immediately when our baby realizes he is starving, his hands get in the way?

 Fun fact #1: Did you know that your baby has been using his hands in this fashion while in utero?  Ultrasounds show babies bringing their hands to their faces before swallowing amniotic fluid.  This is actually a process in the feeding pattern, which explains why babies bring their hands to their mouths when they are hungry. 

Fun fact #2: Did you know that if your baby’s face is not touching your breast as you initiate a breastfeeding session, he will use his hands to find your nipple?  Newborns have incredibly poor eyesight and use all five senses to locate and latch on to the breast.  Those little hands are searching for your breast to help bring it closer to his mouth.

So, what’s a mom to do when her baby is crying to eat, yet his hands are blocking every chance she has to put her breast in the baby’s mouth?

  • Let your baby suck on his fingers to calm himself at the breast.  When he moves his hands, he is already at the ‘restaurant’ and will be ready to breastfeed.
  • Try not to tuck your baby’s hands under his body or swaddle him while breastfeeding.  Tucking his hands can disorient him.  Think about if you were trying to eat with your hands tied behind your back.  You would most likely feel off-centered and clumsy.  Babies need their hands to keep them stable, just like we need our arms to our side or in front of us when we eat.
  • If you have sore nipples and the thought of your baby clawing them makes you yelp just thinking about it, then keep your baby’s face touching your breast.  Try laid-back breastfeeding to assist with this.  In this position, you can wrap your baby’s hands AROUND your breast and he will come in with his face instead.
  • Catherine Watson Genna, one of the most amazing lactation consultants I have ever met (and also the head researcher in an infant hand-use while latching study) recommends this technique in the Lactation Matters article, An Interview with Catherine Watson Genna, “Sometimes babies do get caught in a ‘reflex loop’ of sucking their hand, moving away, and then sucking their hands again. Moving the baby slightly so his face touches mom’s breast can interrupt this loop and get the baby to move his hands away and look for the breast with his mouth again.”  More information can be found in her article, Facilitating Autonomous Infant Hand Use During Breastfeeding

 

So, maybe those roaming little hands are actually helping our babies to become better breastfeeders.  Who knew?

 

San Diego Breastfeeding Center LLC.

Why Breastfed Babies Wake During the Night. La Leche League USA

Why Breastfed Babies Wake During the Night

By Rita Brhel, Hastings, Nebraska

The question “Does your baby sleep through the night?” is as old as the hills. Given that interrupted sleep is a major stressor for new parents, this question makes sense. The transition that happens in those early weeks would undoubtedly be easier if they would be able to get a good night’s sleep.

But for many mothers, asking the question, “Does your baby sleep through the night?”, may suggest that a baby can, and should, sleep through the night without waking.  It may be reassuring to know that not sleeping through the night is normal for babies.

Physiologically

In the book Sweet Sleep (Wiessinger, West, Smith, & Pitman, 2014), we learn about “normal” infant sleep, that is (to quote from the book), “Most babies don’t ‘sleep like a baby.’” Newborn babies are not biologically designed to sleep through the night. They are designed to breastfeed. Breastfed babies need to nurse at night. The ease of digestibility of breast milk ensures optimal growth and immune development when the baby is nursed frequently.

A newborn baby has a need for almost constant skin-to-skin contact. Nurturing touch, closeness to the breast, and sensitive responsiveness—even without considering the benefits of breast milk—provide for the infant’s vital physical development. Oxytocin alone, a hormone created by the body after direct skin-to-skin contact and nurturing touch, has a host of purposes for the growing baby. Encouraging latch and building milk supply are but two ways that promote bonding between mother and baby. That’s partly why mothers can be so willing to forego continuous nighttime sleep to care faithfully for the newborn baby’s frequent needs.

A lengthy gap of more than three hours between nursing sessions—in the first few weeks—can affect the milk supply. Going too long without breastfeeding or milk expression can literally trick the mother’s body into assuming that less milk is needed! The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (8th Edition, Wiessinger, West, & Pitman) states, “A full breast has already started to slow down production.”

If one is doing “everything right” (such as, putting baby to the breast often, not watching the clock, letting the baby finish the breast) during the day, it may be perplexing to feel that the milk supply is going down. Often, upon investigation, you may find that you skipped one or more night nursings or your partner was eager to bond with the baby by giving a bottle. This otherwise kind act can inadvertently sabotage your milk supply. Both members of the breastfeeding duo need those nighttime nursings!

Psychologically
Before modern times, human babies’ survival was at risk without the constant physical contact needed by newborns. Separation may not be as dire now in our Western society, but all babies are born with this innate need to be close to mother and to cry in protest when separated. Sometimes mothers are told that the crying is manipulation; however, crying is one way that babies communicate. The baby may be communicating discomfort and maybe anxiety when separated from mother in those early weeks. For the newborn, physical closeness is as much of a need as breast milk or warmth. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding reminds us that “mothers are hardwired to respond because it’s Nature’s design to keep babies protected, cared for, and thriving.”

A crying baby who protests physical separation may become quiet. A newborn who “learns” to stop crying after waking at night may be laying down “no one cares” pathways (WAB). The baby is also “learning” not to expect a response to her needs, which include the need to breastfeed.

The bottom line is: when a breastfeeding baby wakes at night and gives cues to breastfeed, mothers are encouraged to always offer to nurse at that time.

The next question might be, “How can a mother make sure she gets enough sleep to function the next day?”

First-time mothers can also take advantage of the recommendation, “Sleep when baby sleeps.” The Womanly Art of Breastfeedingprovides other suggestions to help you to meet your baby’s nighttime needs. Here are a few of those ideas – get all the help you can, limiting visitors, nurse lying down or in the laid-back position as much as possible, and go to a La Leche League meeting.  A meeting is a place where you can “complain” without hearing that you should just wean.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants room-share for ideally the first year of life. There are many reasons for this, but among them is to help mothers continue to breastfeed. Sleeping in proximity and breastfeeding reinforce one another.

Mothers who choose to bed-share as part of their nighttime parenting can refer to the Safe Sleep Seven discussed in Sweet Sleep to assist in creating a safe sleeping environment. The Safe Sleep Seven as well as additional bed-sharing resources are available on the LLLI website at http://www.llli.org/sweetsleepbook/tearsheets.

Most importantly, partners, grandparents, pediatricians, and, really, all of us—need to recognize the pitfalls of asking if baby is sleeping through the night yet and to learn what healthy newborn sleep looks like, before offering advice to support a new mother.

References and Resources

  1. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 8th Revised Edition. Schaumburg, Illinois: La Leche League International, 2010; 63-67, 114, 123, 133, 349-52, 411, 449.
  1. Mohrbacher, N.Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple: A Guide for Helping Mothers, Hale Pub. 2010.
  1. Colson, S. Biological nurturing: the laid-back breastfeeding revolution. Midwifery Today Spring 2012; Issue 101.
  1. La Leche League International. Biological Nurturing or Laid Back Breastfeeding”llli.org/btissue5pg04.
  1. Colson, S. What happens to breastfeeding when mothers lie back. Clinical Lactation. Fall 2010; Vol. 1.
  1. Biological Nurturing FAQ’s – www.biologicalnurturing.com/pages/faq.html.
  1. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Loving Support Through Peer Counseling curriculum.
  1. “Beyond Best Practice: Creating a Supportive Environment for Breastfeeding Mothers” conference. Lincoln, Nebraska. Oct. 25, 2016.