Zika virus: Study supports link to microcephaly

In what experts describe as another piece of evidence linking Zika with the risk of birth defects, researchers on Wednesday reported finding the virus in the amniotic fluid of two pregnant women whose foetuses were diagnosed with microcephaly.

 

In a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the scientists said their finding suggests Zika virus can cross the placental barrier, but does not prove it causes microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.

 

More research is needed to understand the link, they said.

 

"This study cannot determine whether the Zika virus identified in these two cases was the cause of microcephaly in the babies," said Ana de Filippis, the doctor who led the study at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 

"Until we understand the biological mechanism linking Zika virus to microcephaly, we cannot be certain that one causes the other."

 

Many scientists believe Zika, a mosquito-borne disease that is currently sweeping through the Americas, may be a risk factor for microcephaly in newborns, as well as for a serious neurological disorder in adults called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

 

The World Health Organization has declared the Zika epidemic spreading from Brazil a global public health emergency and called for urgent studies to establish with its association with rising number of cases of suspected birth defects can be proven.

 

De Filippis' study noted that the number of suspected cases of babies with microcephaly in Brazil in 2015 has increased twenty-fold compared with previous years. At the same time, Brazil is reporting high numbers of Zika virus infections.

Babies born with microcephaly are at risk of incomplete brain development.

 

The condition has previously been linked to a range of factors including genetic disorders, drug or chemical intoxication, maternal malnutrition and infections with viruses or bacteria that can cross the placental barrier such as herpes, HIV, or other mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya.

 

For this study, de Filippis' team investigated the cases of two women, aged 27 and 35, from Paraiba in northeastern Brazil.

The women had symptoms of Zika infection - including fever, muscle pain and a rash - during their first trimester of pregnancy. Ultrasounds taken at approximately 22 weeks of pregnancy confirmed the foetuses had microcephaly.

 

The researchers took and analysed samples of amniotic fluid at 28 weeks of pregnancy. While the women's blood and urine samples tested negative for Zika, their amniotic fluid tested positive for the virus genome and for Zika antibodies.

"Details of the Zika virus being identified directly in the amniotic fluid of a woman during her pregnancy suggest ... the virus could cross the placental barrier and potentially infect the foetus," de Filippis wrote.

Jimmy Whitworth, a Zika expert and professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the findings "strengthen the body of evidence" pointing to Zika as a cause of microcephaly in Brazil.

 

But he noted that while studies of this sort can show associations, they can't show direct causation.

Breastfeeding Baby Refuses Bottle

QUESTION:

I'm trying to get my 3-month-old son to take a bottle for when I have to go out, and he absolutely refuses. I've tried every different nipple on the market, and he just won't drink from them - even when it's my breast milk. How can I get him to do this so that I can leave my son with his dad, or anybody for that matter, without worrying that he is screaming because he's so hungry?

Name Withheld

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JAN'S REPLY:

I understand your concerns - in fact I remember when I had this same question years ago. I'll try to give you the information that helped me to better understand and to meet my son's needs.

It can be worrisome for loving parents to think that their baby may be in a situation in which an important need such as hunger cannot be satisfied. However, a bottle is not a good solution. Many babies will suck only from one or the other, breast or bottle. One reason for this is that the sucking method is, surprisingly, quite different. A baby who is breastfeeding successfully can become confused by something that requires a different sucking method. But I would not recommend that you teach him how to drink from a bottle, even if you could do so. If he were to successfully learn to suck from a bottle nipple (or a pacifier), that could bring about what is termed "nipple confusion" and interfere with his ability to nurse properly. As there are literally hundreds of benefits of breastfeeding, both physical and emotional, for both baby and mother, anything at all that might interfere with this extremely beneficial relationship should be avoided.

Your son has good survival instincts! While his resistance to bottles may be frustrating for you, your baby is strongly communicating his legitimate need to be with you as much as possible. Bottles, even when filled with breastmilk, cannot satisfy a baby's emotional need for the mother's presence. For the early months and years, it is essential that he have full opportunity to bond first with his mother - only then can he successfully move on to bonded relationships with his father and, later, with other persons.

Breastfeeding, beyond all of its many physical benefits, has the added bonus of requiring the mother's presence. A baby has no sense of time and no way of knowing that an absent mother will ever return, yet he understands that her presence is essential. Thus her absence can be quite terrifying. For this reason, it is imperative to keep absences to the barest minimum (in terms of length of time and number of times), and if it is absolutely essential to leave him, try to be gone as short a time as possible, and to schedule things so that you are gone between feedings, or during naps, rather than during a time when he is apt to be hungry.

If a separation is absolutely unavoidable during a time when he is hungry, perhaps he will accept expressed breastmilk from a spoon. In a relatively short time, he will be able to drink from a cup. However, I offer these suggestions reluctantly and definitely not as a routine solution, but only as something that might be used in a rare, emergency situation. It would be far better to avoid separations as much as possible, and to carefully schedule any departures that cannot be avoided. In fact I urge you to make every effort to avoid such departures altogether if possible. Not only do alternate feeding methods interfere with his ability to nurse from you, but more significantly, all separations can interfere to some degree with his developing sense of trust and security.

I would like to stress an important practical consideration that is often overlooked. Sometimes parents assume that a baby will not be welcome or appropriate in a certain situation, when in fact they may be pleasantly surprised if they ask to bring the baby along. Many parents have had the frustrating discovery of attending a function without their baby or child, only to find that others have brought theirs along. If a mother must attend a function where babies are definitely not allowed, she can ask that the baby be brought to her for nursing breaks. Requests like this can even help others in society to become more aware of the critical importance of breastfeeding and bonding. With such a request - even if it is denied - a mother can contribute to the process of social change. In many countries of the world, babies and children are far more welcome in "adult" settings than in North America. It is time to request and advocate change in this area!

It is not only the baby who finds separation difficult. Breastfeeding mothers quite naturally find that they also become uneasy when separated from their baby. The following is excerpted from the La Leche League book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (New York: Penguin Books, 1991):

"You won't want to leave your baby any more than you have to because babies need their mothers. It's a need that is as basic and intense as his need for food. 'That's all well and good,' you may be thinking, 'but what about me? I have needs too.' Of course a mother has needs, and sometimes other responsibilities and obligations cause a mother to be away from her baby more than she wants to be. But you may be surprised to find how strong the bond is that develops between you and your baby. A mother often finds that when she does leave her baby for that long-awaited 'night out', she worries so much about how the baby is getting along that she doesn't really enjoy the occasion!"

I also recommend Dr. Kimmel's short book, Whatever Happened to Mother?, which explores the nature and importance of mother-child bonding.

Author,

Jan Hunt

Kangaroo Mother Care: The Magic of a Mother's Touch

Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is for every mother; every baby. The mother's skin is the baby's natural environment, and both physically and emotionally the healthiest place for the baby to be, says KMC researcher Dr. Nils Bergman of Cape Town.

When Krisanne Collard's "tiny miracle" was born at 24 weeks, she weighed only 795 grams. To save her life, baby Kaia was rushed into intensive care in another hospital 40 kilometres away and put onto a ventilator because she needed oxygen. Krisanne was devastated - she had just given birth, but her arms were empty. Even when she was able to visit her baby and touch her gently, Krisanne felt terribly helpless. Kaia's heart kept stopping whenever she was touched, and she wasn't expected to live.

So when the staff gave Krisanne a reclining chair and suggested she take off her shirt and bra so they could put Kaia onto her warm skin, she was absolutely terrified. "Kaia was so tiny and fragile," she says, "I thought I would kill her if I touched her - maybe her heart would stop beating again. But the staff were very encouraging, so I was finally willing to give it a try. To my amazement, Kaia wriggled a few times, snuggled in and fell into a deep, healing sleep. Her blood-oxygen saturation increased so well that we had to turn down her ventilator by almost half! "I was on top of the world and felt like a real mother for the very first time. After that I held her skin-to-skin on my chest every day and she thrived", she adds.

Why all newborn babies need KMC

KMC research assistant Marianne Littlejohn explains that the transition from the womb to the world is a big adjustment for any baby, even if they are not premature. When we go through very big changes, the first thing we search for is the safety and comfort of something familiar. "Being placed skin-to-skin on the mother's chest stabilizes the baby better than an incubator or heated cot", she says. "The baby is soothed and comforted by the mother's familiar heartbeat, her smell and the sound of her voice." The mother's gentle touch and breathing also stimulate the baby's breathing, and he is rewarded with the sweet-tasting colostrum from her breasts. This eases the baby though the new experience of being outside the mother's body for the very first time.

Newborns need to be kept warm until their temperatures stabilize, and a mother's body is beautifully designed to do this. The temperature on her chest will rise two degrees to warm a cold baby, and fall one degree to cool a hot baby, stabilizing the baby's temperature better than even the most modern incubator. This phenomenon is called "maternal-infant thermal synchrony." If the mother has had an anaesthetic or is too ill to hold the baby, he can be placed skin-to-skin on his dad's chest instead. Dad's voice is also familiar and soothing to the baby and he can help keep the baby warm too. Fathers who have had this extra contact with their newborns are more likely to be involved in caring for the baby than fathers who missed out on early contact.

Why babies need their mothers

"The more skin-to-skin contact, the better", says Dr. Bergman. "It should ideally start at birth, but is helpful any time, and will immediately soothe and calm the baby". If they are separated from their mothers, babies start to cry in distress, stopping only when they are too tired to go on. These distress calls are similar to the distress calls of other baby mammals who have lost their mothers, and are an attempt to bring the mother back. This is called the "protest-despair" response, as the baby finally gives up if the mother doesn't appear, and stops crying in order to conserve energy for survival.

The reason that babies (premature and also full-term) become so distressed when they are separated from their mothers, is that they know instinctively that if she abandons them, they will die. The mother provides everything the baby needs to stay alive: safety, warmth, protection and food. In nature, a baby separated from its mother wouldn't survive for very long, and babies are born knowing that being with their mothers is essential if they are going to survive. As a result, any separation from the mother can create high stress levels in the newborn, with long-term adverse effects on the baby's physical and emotional health. So we refer to the mother and baby as a "dyad" - a pair who should not be separated, but kept together from birth on.

The miracle of a mother's touch

If separation has occurred, the "miracle of a mother's touch" is that reunited with their mothers, babies recover almost immediately. Their heart rate and breathing become normal, their temperatures stabilize and their stress hormones (e.g. cortisol), return to acceptable levels. "We used to think it was normal for incubator babies to have very variable heart rates, irregular breathing and fluctuations in body temperature", says Dr. Bergman. "Now we know that these are the signs of a baby who is in distress. As soon as the baby is placed in his right "habitat" (skin-to-skin on the mother's chest), these vital signs return to normal very quickly." This means that the baby is no longer distressed, and can use all his energy for feeding, growing and thriving, rather than just trying to survive.

Sometimes premature babies are also ill and need to be on drips, be tube fed, and receive oxygen. "When they are needed we can combine these life-saving procedures, and the very latest technology, with KMC", says Dr. Bergman. "This way babies can receive the best of both worlds". A healthy preemie can be tied to the mother's chest in the "Kangaroo Wrapper" and the mother can even walk around with her baby on an IV drip. Oxygen can also be given to babies while they lie skin-to-skin on their mother's chest and babies can be tube-fed in the KMC position as well.

Benefits of breastfeeding preemies

Breastfeeding is a very important part of KMC, says Dr. Bergman. If babies are too small to suck, they are tube-fed their own mother's milk that she is helped to express, until the baby can suck on his own. Nature has designed things so beautifully that the milk of a mother who gives birth prematurely is quite different from the milk of a mother who has given birth to a full-term baby. The former contains special nutrients, which help the very tiny baby to grow and thrive. Also vitally important are the antibodies present in the mother's milk, which protect the baby from disease.

The colostrum, or clear fluid, that is in the mother's breasts for the first few days is especially important for a number of reasons. It is vital that this should also be expressed and given to a baby who is too small to suck yet. This "liquid gold" is highly nutritious and easily digestible. It is the best possible food for any newborn baby, and prepares the baby's stomach to receive the mother's milk, which will come in on the third day after birth. Even if mothers have chosen not to breastfeed, it is recommended that they express colostrum and breast-milk for their babies if they are born prematurely or are ill in any way.

KMC for "every" baby

KMC is not just for premature babies either. The transition from womb to world is a big upheaval for any baby. How we receive them and treat them for the first few days of life will set the pattern for how they will come to perceive the world. We need to reassure them that they have arrived in a good place where they will be loved, cared for, fed and nurtured. All healthy newborns should be kept in constant skin-to-skin contact with their mothers. This enhances bonding, gives them the very best start to life (both physically and emotionally), and enables optimal brain development as well.

"Someone once told me that the parents are the only ones who benefit from Kangaroo Mother Care", says Krisanne. "I don't agree. I saw the dramatic changes in my little miracle when I held her to my heart. For the parents, Kangarooing satisfies the need to feel like a Mom or Dad and gives us a chance to do something for our babies. For the premature babies, Kangaroo Mother Care lowers oxygen requirements, stabilizes heart rates, gives them an overall sense of peace and so much more!" If babies could tell us what they most need, they would simply say, "Hold me, feed me and love me". Mothers have always known this - now the studies tell us they were right!

by Pat Törngren

The Importance of Skin to Skin Contact

There are now a multitude of studies that show that mothers and babies should be together, skin to skin (baby naked, not wrapped in a blanket) immediately after birth, as well as later. The baby is happier, the baby's temperature is more stable and more normal, the baby's heart and breathing rates are more stable and more normal, and the baby's blood sugar is more elevated. Not only that, skin to skin contact immediately after birth allows the baby to be colonized by the same bacteria as the mother. This, plus breastfeeding, are thought to be important in the prevention of allergic diseases. When a baby is put into an incubator, his skin and gut are often colonized by bacteria different from his mother's.

We now know that this is true not only for the baby born at term and in good health, but also even for the premature baby. Skin to skin contact and Kangaroo Mother Care can contribute much to the care of the premature baby. Even babies on oxygen can be cared for skin to skin, and this helps reduce their needs for oxygen, and keeps them more stable in other ways as well.

From the point of view of breastfeeding, babies who are kept skin to skin with the mother immediately after birth for at least an hour, are more likely to latch on without any help and they are more likely to latch on well, especially if the mother did not receive medication during the labour or birth. As mentioned in "Breastfeeding - Starting out Right", a baby who latches on well gets milk more easily than a baby who latches on less well. When a baby latches on well, the mother is less likely to be sore. When a mother's milk is abundant, the baby can take the breast poorly and still get lots of milk, though the feedings may then be long or frequent or both, and the mother is more prone to develop problems such as blocked ducts and mastitis. In the first few days, however, the mother does not have a lot of milk (but she has enough!), and a good latch is important to help the baby get the milk that is available (yes, the milk is there even if someone has "proved" to you with the big pump that there isn't any). If the baby does not latch on well, the mother may be sore, and if the baby does not get milk well, the baby will want to be on the breast for long periods of time worsening the soreness.

To recap, skin to skin contact immediately after birth, which lasts for at least an hour has the following positive effects on the baby:

• Are more likely to latch on
• Are more likely to latch on well
• Have more stable and normal skin temperatures
• Have more stable and normal heart rates and blood pressures
• Have higher blood sugars
• Are less likely to cry
• Are more likely to breastfeed exclusively longer

There is no reason that the vast majority of babies cannot be skin to skin with the mother immediately after birth for at least an hour. Hospital routines, such as weighing the baby, should not take precedence.

The baby should be dried off and put on the mother. Nobody should be pushing the baby to do anything; nobody should be trying to help the baby latch on during this time. The mother, of course, may make some attempts to help the baby, and this should not be discouraged. The mother and baby should just be left in peace to enjoy each other's company. (The mother and baby should not be left alone, however, especially if the mother has received medication, and it is important that not only the mother's partner, but also a nurse, midwife, doula or physician stay with them—occasionally, some babies do need medical help and someone qualified should be there "just in case"). The eyedrops and the injection of vitamin K can wait a couple of hours. By the way, immediate skin to skin contact can also be done after cæsarean section, even while the mother is getting stitched up, unless there are medical reasons which prevent it.

Studies have shown that even premature babies, as small as 1200 g (2 lb 10 oz) are more stable metabolically (including the level of their blood sugars) and breathe better if they are skin to skin immediately after birth. The need for an intravenous infusion, oxygen therapy or a nasogastric tube, for example, or all the preceding, does not preclude skin to skin contact. Skin to skin contact is quite compatible with other measures taken to keep the baby healthy. Of course, if the baby is quite sick, the baby's health must not be compromised, but any premature baby who is not suffering from respiratory distress syndrome can be skin to skin with the mother immediately after birth. Indeed, in the premature baby, as in the full term baby, skin to skin contact may decrease rapid breathing into the normal range.

Even if the baby does not latch on during the first hour or two, skin to skin contact is still good and important for the baby and the mother for all the other reasons mentioned.

If the baby does not take the breast right away, do not panic. There is almost never any rush, especially in the full term healthy baby. One of the most harmful approaches to feeding the newborn has been the bizarre notion that babies must feed every three hours. Babies should feed when they show signs of being ready, and keeping a baby next to his mother will make it obvious to her when the baby is ready. There is actually not a stitch of proof that babies must feed every three hours or by any schedule, but based on such a notion, many babies are being pushed into the breast because three hours have passed. The baby not interested yet in feeding may object strenuously, and thus is pushed even more, resulting, in many cases, in babies refusing the breast because we want to make sure they take the breast. And it gets worse. If the baby keeps objecting to being pushed into the breast and gets more and more upset, then the "obvious next step" is to give a supplement. And it is obvious where we are headed

A Time to Wean

In the United States, women receive conflicting advice about when to wean their children completely from breastfeeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends one year, while WHO and UNICEF recommend at least two years. Many physicians consider six months to be "extended" breastfeeding, and some health professionals question the motives of women who nurse for more than a year. In turn, women may hide the fact that they are still nursing an older child from disapproving health care professionals or family members. From anthropological research, we know that in many non-Western cultures children are routinely nursed for three to four years. Are they eccentric, or are we? Can we look to other animals to determine what the natural age at weaning would be in modern humans if it was not modified by cultural beliefs?

Like all mammals, humans have mammary glands that function to nurture their offspring. Within the class Mammalia, humans are members of the order Primates, and have the basic primate pattern of breastfeeding and weaning activity that has been molded by more than 65 million years of natural selection to ensure the best possible survival rate of primate offspring. This basic pattern is assumed to be primarily genetically based. In addition, a number of life-history variables are also associated with age at weaning in the non-human primates. What do these variables suggest about the "natural" age of weaning in humans?

Weaning according to tripling or quadrupling of birth weight

The idea that mammals wean their offspring when they have tripled their birth weight is widely reported in the breastfeeding literature (Lawrence 1989). This rule of thumb holds true for small-bodied mammals, but not for larger ones. Recent research has looked at age at weaning and at growth among large mammals, including primates. The research shows that weaning occurs some months after quadrupling of the birth weight, rather than tripling (Lee, Majluf and Gordon 1991). When do U.S. infants typically quadruple their birth weight? For males, the average age is around 27 months, and for females, around 30 months.

Weaning according to attainment of one-third adult weight

Other studies suggest that primates are like other mammals in weaning each offspring when they reach about one-third their adult weight (Charnov and Berrigan 1993). Humans come in different sizes, but 4 to 7 years of nursing would be the weaning age for humans using this method of comparison, with boys generally being nursed longer than girls, and large-bodied populations nursing longer than small-bodied groups.

Weaning according to adult body size

Harvey and Clutton-Brock (1985) published a study of life-history variables in primates, including a formula for calculating age at weaning based on adult female body weight. The equation predicts an age at weaning for humans at between 2.8 and 3.7 years, depending on average adult female body weight, with larger-bodied populations nursing the longest.

Weaning according to gestation length

It is often reported in the literature that, among mammals in general, weaning age is approximately the same as the length of gestation (Lawrence 1989). By this criterion, weaning in humans might be expected to take place after only nine months of breastfeeding. However, this one-to-one relationship is greatly affected by the adult size of the animal. For many small-bodied primates, the duration of breastfeeding is shorter than the length of gestation. Among large-bodied primate species, the duration of breastfeeding far exceeds the average length of gestation. For humankind's closest relatives, the chimpanzee and the gorilla, the duration of breastfeeding is more than six times the length of gestation. Humans are among the largest of the primates, and share more than 98 percent of their genetic material with chimpanzees and gorillas. Based on these comparisons, an estimated natural age at weaning for humans would be a minimum of six times gestational length, or 4.5 years.

Weaning according to dental eruption

According to the research of Smith (1991), many primates wean their offspring when they are erupting their first permanent molars. First permanent molar eruption occurs around 5.5 to 6.0 years in modern humans. It is interesting to note that achievement of adult immune competence in humans also occurs at approximately six years of age, suggesting that throughout our recent evolutionary past, the active immunities provided by breast milk were normally available to the child until about this age (Fredrickson).

Our evolutionary past has produced an organism that relies on breastfeeding to provide the context for physical, cognitive, and emotional development. The human primate data suggest that human children are designed to receive all of the benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding for an absolute minimum of two and a half years, and an apparent upper limit of around seven years. Natural selection has favored those infants with a strong, genetically coded blueprint that programs them to expect nursing to continue for a number of years after birth and results in the urge to suckle remaining strong for this entire period. Many societies today are able to meet a child's nutritional needs with modified adult foods after the age of three or four years. Western, industrialized societies can compensate for some (but not all) of the immunological benefits of breastfeeding with antibiotics, vaccines and improved sanitation. But the physical, cognitive, and emotional needs of the young child persist. Health care professionals, parents, and the general public should be made aware that somewhere between three and seven years may be a reasonable and appropriate age of weaning for humans, however uncommon it may be in the United States to nurse an infant through toddlerhood and beyond.

A Baby Cries: How Should Parents Respond?

Imagine for a moment that you have been abducted by space ship to a distant planet, and you are surrounded by giant strangers whose language you do not speak. Two of those strangers take you under their care. You are entirely dependent on them for the satisfaction of all your needs - hunger, thirst, comfort, and - especially - reassurance that you are safe in this strange place. Then imagine that something is very wrong - you are in pain, or terribly thirsty, or in need of emotional support. But your two attendants ignore your cries of distress, and you are unable to get them to help you or to understand your needs. Now you have another problem, more serious than the first: you feel completely helpless and alone in an alien world.

In all innocence, a baby assumes that we, as his parents, are correct - that whatever we do is what we ought to be doing. If we do nothing, the baby can only conclude that he is unloved because he is unlovable. It is not within his capabilities to conclude that we are only busy, distracted, worried, misled by "experts", or simply inexperienced as parents. No matter how deeply we love our baby, it is mostly the outward manifestations of that love that the baby can understand.

No one likes to have his communication ignored. and if it is, this brings on feelings of helplessness and anger that inevitably damage the relationship. Such a response seems to be one that is universally experienced by adults, and there is no reason to conclude that it is any different for babies and children. Few people would ignore an adult while he repeatedly said, "Can you help me? I'm not feeling right." Ignoring such a request would be considered most unkind. But a baby cannot make such a statement; he can only cry and cry until someone responds - or until he gives up in despair.

Immediate response to a baby's cry went unquestioned for thousands of years until recent times. In our culture, we assume that crying is normal and unavoidable for babies. Yet in natural societies where babies are carried close to the care-giver much of the day and night for the first several months, such crying is rare. In contrast to what many in our society would expect, babies cared for in this way show self-sufficiency sooner than do babies not receiving such care.

In fact, research on early childhood experiences consistently shows that children who have enjoyed the most loving care in infancy become the most secure and loving adults, while those babies who have been forced into submissive behavior build up feelings of resentment and anger that may well be expressed later in harmful ways.

In spite of this research, most arguments for ignoring crying are based on fears of "spoiling" the baby. A typical baby-care brochure advises the parent to "let the baby handle it for a while". Though infancy can be a challenging time for the parents, a baby is simply too young and inexperienced to "handle" the cause of the crying, whatever it may be. He cannot feed himself, change himself, or comfort himself in the way that nature intended. Clearly, it is the parents' responsibility to meet their baby's needs for nurturing, security, and love, not the baby's responsibility to meet his parents' need for peace and solitude.

The pamphlet implies that if the parents give their baby an opportunity to become self-reliant, they are helping him to mature. But an infant is simply not capable of such maturity. True maturity reflects a strong foundation of emotional security that can only come about from the love and support of those closest to him during the earliest years.

An immature person can only respond to stress in an immature way. A baby denied his birthright of comforting from his parents may respond by turning to ineffective self-stimulation (head-banging, rhythmic rocking, thumb-sucking, etc.) and emotional withdrawal from others. If his needs are routinely ignored, he may decide that loneliness and despair are preferable to risking further disappointment and rejection. Unfortunately, this decision, once made, can become a permanent outlook on life, leading to an emotionally impoverished life.

Many child-care professionals feel that parental encouragement of self-satisfiers and over-substitution of material objects - teddy bears substituting for parents, strollers for arms, cribs for shared sleep, pacifiers for nursing, toys for parents' attention, music boxes for voices, formula for breast-milk, wind-up swings for laps - have led to an age of materialistic acquisition, personal loneliness and lack of emotional fulfillment.

Ignoring a baby's crying is like using earplugs to stop the distressing noise of a smoke detector. The sound of a smoke detector is meant to alert us to a serious matter that requires a response - and so is the cry of a baby. As Jean Liedloff wrote in The Continuum Concept, "a baby's cry is precisely as serious as it sounds."

Stressful though it may be, infant crying should be seen not as a power struggle between parent and child, but as a gift of nature to ensure that all babies can grow to adulthood with a generous capacity for love and trust.

by Jan Hunt

Fun Bonding Activities for Dads and Babies

It’s easy for dads to feel a bit left out as they watch Mom do so much of the baby care. If Mom is breastfeeding, dads may feel even more shut out. But it’s important for dads to bond with their infants, say experts, as this sets the stage for closer relations as the child grows. Besides, it gives Mom a break and may help dads discover their inner teddy bear.

Here are some ideas for fun bonding activities for dads and babies.

Super-Baby

This fun game gets baby laughing almost every time. Lie on your back and lay your baby on your stomach, baby’s stomach down. Pick baby up and hold him up over your chest and face, making fun flying sounds. Rotate baby with a gentle back-and-forth, up and down motion – don’t forget to make funny noises and faces at him!

Changing Diapers

Yes, this is not exactly the most fun thing, but it’s part of having a baby, and it’s surprisingly a good time to bond. You can sing to your baby, talk to her, and play fun games like bicycling her legs.

Dancing

Babies love to move, even when they can’t move on their own yet. Hold baby over your shoulder or on your hip, and move and dance around the room. Put on music and/or sing. This is also a good way for dad to burn some extra calories!

Patting

When you hold your baby, pat his back and rear. Babies like rhythmic patting, and you may find a secret dad activity that gets baby to sleep.

Take a Walk

Load baby in the stroller and take a walk in the park, neighborhood, or wherever. If you have a backpack or sling, you can take your baby on a walk or hike “off road.” Experts point out the healthy benefits of getting babies out in nature, even at a very young age.

Read to Baby

Yes, you can read to a tiny baby, and you may find that it establishes a pattern that you will love later. Research shows that reading aloud to babies and children helps them get a head start in reading later in life. And it provides some wonderful bonding time for dad and baby.

While we’re on the topic of things to do with your baby, it’s worth mentioning some things not to do. Sources agree that it’s just not safe to toss babies up in the air and catch them. Don’t run with baby or carry her while you’re riding a machine like a riding mower or ATV. Use your judgment, and don’t do anything that could cause harm to baby.