Mealtimes and Breastfeeding

7 Reasons To Calm Down About Babies Crying

There are people who don’t mind hearing babies cry. They ignore a baby in distress, won’t pick the baby up ‘so as not to spoil him’, think nothing of leaving babies crying alone for hours in a dark room. I know these people exist because I read articles about them all time. But seriously, who are they? In my 18 ½ years as a mother, 16 years as a parent educator and 2 years blogging, I’ve never...

Parenting To Prevent Childhood Obesity (Guest Post by Kiyah Duffey)

Infant specialist Magda Gerber’s feeding recommendations made perfect sense to me and have “served” my children well. She encouraged parents to be observant and responsive to cues, pay undivided focused attention during breastfeeding, bottle feeding and all mealtimes, trust infants and toddlers to know their bodies and communicate their needs. As the result of these practices, my children not only continue to...

Surprising Things Babies Might Do (If Given The Chance)

Important Disclaimer: the ‘might do’ things discussed in this post should not be construed as things your baby should be able to do. This list is not intended to cause an iota of parental worry, a smidgen of doubt. Infants and toddlers develop skills at highly individual rates and need to be trusted to do so in their own perfect time. The purpose of this post is all positive, a friendly reminder that our...

Gentle Discipline In Action (Seeing Is Believing)

Do toddlers like to learn rules and follow directions? Are they capable of restraint, making decisions, self-discipline, patience, even unsolicited acts of kindness? Seeing is believing. In this brief video, not just one, but five extraordinary 14 to 18 month old toddlers demonstrate these things and more… (No actors were hired!) This is the first few minutes of snack time (traditionally consisting of bananas and...

Parenting Without The Labels

Here’s an understatement: first-time parenting can be daunting. The overwhelming responsibility many of us feel to “get it right” motivates us to seek child care information and advice.  The good news there is that we’ve already proven we have the basic requirement for good parenting – we care enough to ask questions. Then we discover the work of child care experts or methodologies like Attachment...

Toddler Eating Issues (or Stuff Your Worries, Not Your Toddler)

It’s upsetting when something’s amiss with our child’s behavior, especially when it concerns eating. However, as this family is discovering, acting out of fear at mealtime only makes matters worse. Hi Janet, We are writing to you as we find ourselves facing a very frustrating situation. Here it is: We are having trouble during our 20 month old daughter Angie’s mealtimes and that is having a bad effect...

Weaning A Toddler

Hi Janet, I am really enjoying your site. The RIE philosophy fits so well with the way my husband and I are trying to parent, and I am learning so much. One issue that we are facing now, however, is weaning from the breast, and I couldn’t find much on your site that gave any strategies of the best way to approach this with a toddler. My son is 19 months and still nursing frequently. For many months, the...

Breastfeeding For Comfort (The All-Night Diner)

A discussion I had with Annie from “PHD In Parenting” a while back (Attachment Parenting Debate – For Crying Out Loud!) sparked some interesting commentary. A couple of days ago I received this new comment and question… I am beyond excited to have found your blog Janet, and this debate has been so revealing for me. My daughter is almost 1 year old and I have been practicing Attachment Parenting because it...