|
“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 keep on encouraging parents to
pick up their babies. Comfort them when they
cry. Sleep with the baby nearby. And let them
know that their desire to respond to their baby
has scientific backing.
Read more about the study at
The
Harvard University Gazette.
Back to The Clinicians' Corner News and Research
Updates
|
