Family Bed and sleeping with babies

[Sandra Dodd]

When I was working on The Big Book of Unschooling, I cited Tine
Thevin's book, but it's over 20 years old now. Here's a newer one
I've just read about on Bob Collier's Parental Intelligence newsletter:

Cosleeping Around The World
by James J. McKenna Ph.D.

http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Your-Baby-Parents-Cosleeping/dp/1930775342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229879739&sr=1-1

Bob linked a long quote from the book here, at The Natural Child Project

http://www.naturalchild.org/james_mckenna/cosleeping_world.html

Sandra

[Emile Snyder]

There is a book that isn't exactly just about cosleeping (although it
has a section on it) called "Our Babies, Ourselves" from 1999 that was
a very interesting read for me when we were expecting our first child
~5 years ago. It's a sort of anthropological/sociobiological overview
of babies and how cultural practices vary in regards to all the
typical subjects "baby books" address.

While I read it in a constant state of agitation, wanting to
discuss/argue various points about the research it was citing, it was
amazingly helpful to broaden my mental ideas about just how *many*
different ways babies grow up. All the "what to expect..." kinds of
books felt amazingly provincial after reading it, and it brought home
how far from the middle of the bell curve my (US) culture is with many
baby care practices.

thanks,
-emile

[Sandra Dodd]

-=- All the "what to expect..." kinds of

books felt amazingly provincial after reading it, and it brought home
how far from the middle of the bell curve my (US) culture is with many

baby care practices.-=-

YES.

I won't speak for Canada or any other country, but medicine used to
tend to have the stranglehold on parenting advice until the 1960's or
so. "Dr. Spock" was the radical advisor. Others were more
traditional and conservative. Everyone wanted to measure and count
and be scientific about everything, including children, and so they
started "training" children with operant conditioning methods and
schedules and stuff.

For a month I've been dealing with the medical system, the rules about
insurance and who can see which Xrays and bonescans without special
requests, and the physical therapy contractors. I've been to an
emergency room, primary care doctor and two specialists.

I avoid doctors when I can. But there's one cool thing about it all,
and it's that it's a guild. It's like a medieval guild, with ranks,
and initiations and oaths and secrets and most of all with the power
to prevent there being any competition. And the AMA (American Medical
Association) jealously guards its secrets, and they don't care what
they do in France, or Sweden, or Japan. It's stupid, it's wrong, it's
not American.

And so childcare got caught up in their swirl for most of the 20th
century. "Old wives tales" were wrong. Folk practices were
ignorant. People had no instincts, but had to learn everything from
books, I was taught in school, and friends of mine were taught that in
college as recently as the 1980's. It's probably still "a fact"
taught in many texbooks at all levels. It's not true, but if you have
to agree to it to pass a test to become a doctor, or whatever, it owns
its own truth, however twisted and harmful.

Sandra

[Schuyler Waynforth]

I really like Meredith Small's stuff. She's an evolutionary anthropologist who worked with chimps. Her books have sort of followed her life from what I can tell. She started with What's Love Got to Do with It, moved to Our Babies, Ourselves and then to Our Kids, Ourselves. She has a more recent book out and has essays on evolution and human behaviour that I found earlier today here:http://www.livescience.com/culture/090424-hn-marriage-happy.html. Well that was one on how perception is important for a happy marriage.

I saw James McKenna speak in 1997 at the American Anthropology Association meeeting in Washington DC. He was there with Carol Worthman who has a really amazing lab at Emory University. James McKenna contacted David about some research he was doing on co-sleeping and I thought it was one of the cooler touching someone who new someone famous kind of things.

Schuyler