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“You can’t pick that baby up every time she
cries. You’ll spoil her!” Not true, say
researchers at Harvard Medical School’s
Department of Psychiatry. A recent study found
that the dominant American practices of letting
babies “cry it out” and having them sleep in
separate beds and rooms away from their parents
not only cause undo stress in the short term,
but can have life long implications. Separation
induced stress, they found, affects a baby’s
nervous system, making them more sensitive to
future stress and possibly to more
post-traumatic stress and panic disorders as an
adult.
Confirming what advocates of attachment
parenting have long argued, children need
security in order to feel safe and explore their
world. Warm physical and emotional contact
forms the basis of that security. In short,
responding to a baby’s cries does not teach them
to become dependent; it teaches them to trust
their world. So go ahead and pick up your
baby. Comfort her when she cries. Sleep with
her near you. And feel good that your intuition
to respond to your baby has scientific backing.
Read more about the study at
The
Harvard University Gazette.
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