Interesting article for parents

[holly_evolving]

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/infant_potty_training/49208/1

1.1 billion Indians can't be wrong?

Comments

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

The first time I read about diaper-free babies, I thought, "are you kidding me?"

But I wound up spending more and more time on it while I was working at Babies "R" Us, and my stance has definitely relaxed as I've learned.

This sort of approach requires total attachment parenting; one parent must be in constant physical contact with the baby. That means staying at home, no day care, bed sharing, breastfeeding. It's most likely the model that humans evolved with, especially when you consider how many nations still do this.

What really floors me is that it's not just rural families that practice this. A friend of mine from my BRU store was from Bangladesh, and he lived in a pretty active suburb. Both parents worked. His mom had a longer maternity leave than American moms do...6 months, I think, and his gramma lived with his family, as is customary. When mom went back to work, gramma provided childcare, and she could read the signals just fine. Mom stored some breastmilk for gramma to feed him during the day.

It would take some major cultural adjustments for this sort of thing to work large-scale in America, from maternity leave to more places to pee the baby outside (if grownups can't pee on NYC sidewalks...). I think the paradigm shift would require a lot more stay-at-home parents, and I don't think that's something that fits in with the modern American ideal.

Still, it's interesting to know where we came from. And I imagine there is a small percentage of American families who can and would do this.

Bed-sharing still makes me nervous, though. We did it for millenia...but how did we avoid crushing the baby?

This is the book I read for work:
http://www.natural-wisdom.com/about.htm

[alphafemale1.livejournal.com]

I wonder about that too- crushing the baby. And a lot of the moms and dads I know avoid bed-sharing for that same reason- fear they will roll-over and smother the child.

It may work better if there aren't 2 parents in the bed. I can't possibly imagine trying to put a newborn in between Eric and I, but me by myself *might* manage it better. Of course, I probably wouldn't really sleep, out of fear.

I do know there are the "side car" cribs for newborns and breast-feeding moms- the baby has it's own crib, but it's the same height as the regular bed, and pulls up alongside it. That could possibly work with "diaperless" babies.

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

We used to sell the sidecar cribs when I worked at Babies "R" Us. They're glorified bassinets; they're only safe to 20 pounds. Really doesn't work for the attachment parenting ideal.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2401895

The non-mini is good up to 30 pounds.

http://www.babybungalow.com/arreaccospla.html

http://www.eirpharm.com/search_weight_height.php?age_months=12+Months&submit.x=41&submit.y=5

It would seem that 30 pounds is a fine parameter...but there are a lot of obese babies out there. Does breastfeeding always eliminate this issue?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070615214342AAkE17j

Scenarios like this are really common. Walk around a Babies "R" Us or a toy store, and look at the size of the babies you see. If it seems a viable option, ask the parents what the baby's age and weight are. The answers will likely be surprising.