There Is No 'Normal'
What are the full range of health benefits of breastfeeding my baby?
To answer this, Wright referenced the pros specified by lactation pros at L.A.'s Pump Station, where she teaches Mommy & Me classes. An RN and a lactation-training pro, Corky Harvey says, "Human milk is a complex, living substance with numerous disease-fighting and health-promoting ingredients; it is a complete infant support-system that provides both nutrition and protection." On the emotional front, "Breastfeeding promotes strong attachment. The act of breastfeeding insures that a baby will be in his mother's arms many times every day; in fact, a breastfed baby is touched and held almost twice as much as a formula-fed infant. Attachment is not a parenting style, but a biological necessity for normal mental health and optimal brain development."
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How does tummy time help my child?
"We live in a world where babies are artificially on their back most of the time," says Wright. "There is so much that babies gain from having supervised tummy time, just put a soft blanket on the floor—I don't think it's ever too young to start. This helps to develop their gross motor skills as well as small motor skills as baby pushes herself up with her hands. It's a precursor to sitting up, standing—so many things." She cautions, though, "Babies mostly hate tummy time at first, we encourage parents to keep at it. It might be just 15 seconds once an hour at first, but soon they come to love it. Tummy time is very good for getting their heads up and strengthening their necks."
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What are the signs for serious developmental delays?
"In general we want to ease Mom's anxieties about their baby, most of the time there is nothing wrong, though we always want to take their instincts into consideration," says Wright. "However, if you are noticing a delay in gross-motor skills—things like babies only reaching with one arm or a floppy baby, I'll tell a mom to wait two weeks and if I still feel like it's borderline, I'll refer them to a specialist. As well, everyone is concerned about autism—if you notice lack of eye contact, a child not responding to their name, not interacting with others, delayed language—it is worth having your child tested. In my professional opinion, rates of autism have not increased in recent years, it's just that it's getting detected earlier."
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What if my baby seems to be falling behind other kids her age?
"Generally," says Wright, "I work to ease parents' anxiety over development, each child is unique and hits their milestones in a range of time. I tell most moms and dads not to worry about what their child is doing or not, and not to compare them to other kids."
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What's too much in terms of attachment parenting and how will this affect her?
Wright responds, "Similar to the previous question, one of the signs of a securely attached child, over time, is increased independence, willingness to explore the world, and mastery of new and developmentally unfolding skills. As your child grows, she trusts in you, in her, and in the world around her."
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What are some fun developments I can look forward to?
"Babies have a great sense of humor—they love when you are super-silly," says Wright. "Also, early on, a baby can look at herself in a mirror, and not know that it's them. Then, sometime between 15 and 24 months, kids develop self-awareness, and it's marked in an experiment known as the 'rouge test.' In it, children's noses are dotted with a bit of makeup and then they are placed before a mirror. Before 15 months, children see an image of a child with a red spot on their nose, but they don't realize that the red spot is on their own nose. When children are between 15 and 24 months, they start to comprehend that the reflection they see is their own, and they point to the red nose or try to wipe away the rouge."
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