Cosleeping myths vs. research realities, Part I

As I said in a recent post, I have my own ideas about cosleeping in the sense of bedsharing, and they’ll be rather unpopular among the AP/NPer set. The latter make some rather extravagant claims about the benefits of cosleeping, which are simply not supported in the medical literature. What’s more, cosleeping under certain conditions [...]

Some light reading…

If you haven’t already read this, I suggest you do. My friend Stacy sent this to me some years ago, knowing it would make my day .
Truth is, though, I don’t hate him. I’m sure he’s a very good, compassionate pediatrician who knows his medicine at least as well as any other. I [...]

A bit more on the “natural” range of weaning

I’ve already discussed at length my thoughts about Dettwyler and her so-called “natural” range of weaning, derived largely from primate and other animal studies. However, I’ve recently come across an interesting article (.pdf file) by G.E. Kennedy, an anthropologist from UCLA, which makes an interesting argument in this regard: that humans are evolutionarily programmed to [...]

Bad Science:The curious case of Tina Kimmel and the CPSC

***Update to this post on June 30th. ***
I have my own ideas about cosleeping, which will not make APers very happy*. I will say that while I believe cosleeping can be a safe option, it probably rarely is in
real life, and certainly the benefits of cosleeping have been completely overblown by advocates.
That’s not [...]

Awwww…

My husband is having a bout of back pain. We’re a little worried about it, as this is the first episode of serious pain he’s had since his spinal surgery for a badly slipped lumbar disc 2.5 years ago. The very fact he’s agreed to see a doctor (in a professional capacity, that is) is [...]

When proof is not proof: AP/NP “research”

It always amuses me when I see an AP/NP website discover this article. Even though the article is almost 10 years old, it’s still constantly being ‘discovered’ by AP/NPers and touted as a ’study’ – from Harvard, no less – which is proof that putting your baby to sleep on her own, or using the [...]

Some wise words

From child psychiatrist Stella Chess (1914-2007). Chess was the first to classify children according to temperament, and hypothesized that children whose temperaments weren’t a good match with their parents invited a childhood full of conflict and anxiety:
Stella’s concepts of temperament and goodness or poorness of fit offered a paradigm shift for understanding the child’s behavior—from [...]

Is child-led weaning natural?

AP websites will wax poetic about how natural it is to let your child nurse until she is ready to give up nursing. I’ve actually ‘met’ someone online who described mother-led weaning as ’stunted nursing’ (as opposed to her perfect method of ‘full term nursing’. Yes, I did a lot of eye-rolling too). But [...]

OK, this is just plain hilarious…

Get thee over to The Imperfect Parent (a wonderful name for a parenting website, BTW) and read Don’t Even Bother: The Case Against Childbirth Preparation Classes by Kelly Cunningham.
I actually don’t have anything against childbirth preparation classes per se . I took lessons in the Bradley Method with a very nice woman, and if you’re [...]

Biological determinism: The “natural” range of weaning

I’m not quite ready to let go of Kathy Dettwyler quite yet. Dettwyler is the author of a scholarly paper which I’ve read but cannot find, unfortunately, but a layperson’s version can be found at her site, which claims that the natural range of weaning for humans is 2.5-7 years.That is, supposedly all human children [...]