Mindful Mouthfuls – Helping Our Babies Learn Healthy Eating

If we are what we eat, aren’t we also a product of the way we eat?  As busy new parents we’re usually focused on the mechanics of breast or bottle-feeding, then introducing solids: when to start, which foods, in what order, how much and how to provide the best nutrition. But most of us also hope to foster healthy eating behaviors for our children. We want to do all in our power to prevent eating disorders,...

Random Thoughts On “Beyond Bottles And Breasts” (My Previous Post)

One thing I have felt across-the-board with all the stories about breast and bottle feeding is that we are all doing the very best we can. We can all agree that the experience of parenting an infant is not easy, whether it’s your first or fifth child.  There are extreme highs and lows (usually depending upon how much sleep you’ve had), from ecstasy to hopelessness. I have been there. We make choices based on...

Beyond Bottles And Breasts – The Key To Whole Baby Nourishment

I am riveted by the contentious online debate between breastfeeding advocates and formula feeders. I’m reading heart-wrenching stories of women who persevere through frustration and physical pain until they finally give up breastfeeding, and then feel judged by breast-feeders for their perceived ‘failure’. At the same time, I’m hearing about the stunning lack of support breast-feeders deal with. They are...

Attachment Parenting Debate (For Crying Out Loud!)

The other day I made a comment that led to an animated online discussion with a blogger (Annie) who writes about Attachment Parenting. Attachment Parenting is a movement founded by William Sears, M.D.  He recommends maintaining close physical contact with a baby 24 hours a day for the sake of bonding.  Parents are encouraged to keep the baby next to them at all times in their arms or in a baby carrier, to...

Baby Table Manners (With Video)

I am continually amazed by how capable babies are. Sometimes words, however descriptive (even mine!), can’t do them justice. So, I’ve attached a video from one of my classes to this post to visually demonstrate. Please have a look — no actors were hired! I was stunned to learn years ago that once a baby is able to sit securely on his own (usually 8 to 12 months old), he can actually sit down to eat at his...

The Easily Forgotten Gift

I know the gift all children want most — we all want it — but it’s a hard one to remember. I’ve forgotten it for days, even weeks at a time. Sometimes it takes a desperate situation to remind me. Once, I remembered it when my independent ten-year-old went through a phase in which she saw no reason to bathe. Days would pass. She would come up with excuses. I would let her off the hook and then forget...

Smelling Roses (Taking Babies on Errands)

I can relate to babies. I get over-stimulated in the supermarket the way babies do. I have a strange aversion to making lists and always believe I’ll be able to take a few minutes to march down each aisle, recognizing all I need to buy. Twenty minutes later, I’m in a zombie trance and have covered less than half the store. (The hidden benefit to this is that my husband now prefers to get-it-and-go himself,...

Blue Sky Thinking

“Take the mobile off the bed, take care of their needs, and leave them alone.” This odd sentence was my introduction to Magda Gerber and the child care philosophy that would become my passion. I had given birth a few months before reading this quotation, the only one by Gerber, in an article in L.A. Parent magazine about raising a creative child. I remember nothing else about the article, but I could not get...