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The First Building Block Of HOPE: Relationships Research has shown that positive childhood experiences help children grow into healthy, resilient adults. These positive experiences can be categorized into what we call the four building blocks of HOPE.	The Artist's Way For Parents: Interview With Julia Cameron, Artist & Creative Coach Julia Cameron came up with the idea of authoring The Artist's Way books more than two decades ago while sharing ideas with a few friends in their living room. Today, more than 30 books include her byline including The Artist's Way for Parents.
Falling in Love with Our Children is Scary: 3 Tips to Make It Easier Love opens us up, wide open: no armor, no defenses. We're naked and vulnerable when we're in love. Love is powerful. It's not just cupids and chocolates and diamonds.	Love Not Always Floodlights & Fireworks, But Sometimes It Is My son is sleeping on my husband's chest, snuggled in an "O" against his broad shoulders in a snuggly nest, resting easy, gently. I want my son to wake up, because I haven't seen him this morning.
How to Squeeze One-on-One Time Into Your Day: 5 Ideas to Make It Work for You and Your Child Our weekend was great, but normally our one-on-one time together is not that intense though I try to set aside a few minutes every day to connect with my son.	Blog Entry 7 More Parenting Resolutions for the Year has been updated. 7 More Parenting Resolutions For The Year January is when I look to the future, reflecting on the positive changes I'd like to make in my parenting. Here are my top 6 parenting resolutions for this new year.
9 Parenting Resolutions for This Year Every January presents us with the opportunity for a fresh start, for doing things differently to make positive changes in our families' lives.	New Year: A Time To Pause And Reflect Like cooking turkey on Thanksgiving or giving flowers on Valentine's Day, I cannot help feeling the tug of this time of year to pause and reflect. Yes, January 1 is just the next day after December 31.
Give Your Child (And Yourself!) Rest From Being Compared To Others Comparing seems to be part of human nature. We compare ourselves to others. We compare our children to each other and to other children.	How This Mom Reset Holiday Expectations, Lowered Stress, And Found More Family Fun (And You Can, Too!) Later, when we were listening to Christmas music as we were putting up the tree, I didn't even try to make up a story about how decorating was going to go. I just experienced it as it happened and that was enjoyable.

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Journal Studies

Touch for Socioemotional and Physical Well-Being: A Review Field, T. (2010). Touch for socioemotional and physical well-being: A review. Developmental Review, 30(4), 367-383. Touch is needed for social-emotional and physical development and well-being. In addition, there are therapeutic benefits of massage.	The Development of Maternal Touch Across the First Year of Life Ferber, S. G., Feldman, R., & Makhoul, I. R. (2008). The development of maternal touch across the first year of life. Early Human Development, 84(6), 363-370. While maternal touch predicts mother-infant reciprocity, which is linked to positive child cognitive, language, and social-emotional development, the incidence of all forms of nurturing touch decrease through the infant’s first year, especially after six months.
Natural Variations in Maternal and Paternal Care are Associated with Systematic Changes in Oxytocin Following Parent-Infant Contact Feldman, R., Gordon, I., Schneiderman, I., Weisman, O., & Zagoory-Sharon, O. (2010). Natural variations in maternal and paternal care are associated with systematic changes in oxytocin following parent-infant contact. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35(8), 1133-1141. Oxytocin levels rise in both mothers and fathers who provide high levels of affectionate touch but not in parents who provide less nurturing touch.	Effect of Mother/Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact on Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Maternal Physiological Stress Bigelow, A., Power, M., MacLellan-Peters, J., Alex, M., & McDonald, C. (2012). Effect of Mother/Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact on Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Maternal Physiological Stress. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 41(3), 369-382 Skin-to-skin contact lessened the mother’s stress and postpartum depression symptoms within the first month after childbirth.
Unequal in Opportunity, Equal in Process: Parental Sensitivity Promotes Positive Child Development in Ethnic Minority Families Mesman, J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2012). Unequal in opportunity, equal in process: Parental sensitivity promotes positive child development in ethnic minority families. Child Development Perspectives, 6(3), 239-250. While low-income, ethnic-minority families displayed less sensitivity overall to their children, positive father involvement and close mother-father relationships were especially beneficial in the case of maternal risk.	Predictors of Maternal Sensitivity to Infant Distress Leerkes, E. M. (2010). Predictors of maternal sensitivity to infant distress. Parenting: Science and Practice, 10(3), 219-239. A mother’s emotional goals predicted her sensitivity to infant distress more so than her own emotional reaction. In addition, her prenatal ability to detect an unfamiliar infant’s distress was associated with more maternal sensitivity with her own infant.
Breastfeeding, Brain Activation to Own Infant Cry, and Maternal Sensitivity Kim, P., Feldman, R., Mayes, L. C., Eicher, V., Thompson, N., Leckman, J. F., & Swain, J. E. (2011). Breastfeeding, brain activation to own infant cry, and maternal sensitivity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(8), 907-915. Breastfeeding changed the mother’s brain, activating brain regions associated with empathy, greater maternal sensitivity, and mother-infant bonding.	The Relation Between Early Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact and Later Maternal Sensitivity in South African Mothers of Low Birth Weight Infants Bigelow, A. E., Littlejohn, M., Bergman, N., & McDonald, C. (2010). The relation between early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact and later maternal sensitivity in South African mothers of low birth weight infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 31(3), 358-377. Early mother-infant skin-to-skin contact predicted later maternal sensitivity.
Parenting Styles, Parental Response to Child Emotion, and Family Emotional Responsiveness are Related to Child Emotional Eating Topham, C. L., Hubbs-Tait, L., Rutledge, J. M., Page, M. C., Kennedy, T. S., Shriver, L. H., & Harrist, A. W. (2011). Parenting styles, parental response to child emotion, and family emotional responsiveness are related to child emotional eating. Appetite, 56(2), 261-264. Child emotional eating is correlated with minimizing and non-reasoning, punitive parental responses, which are in line with authoritarian and permissive parenting styles but not authoritative styles.	Breastfeeding and Its Relation to Maternal Sensitivity and Infant Attachment Tharner, A., Luijk, M. P., Raat, H., IJzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Moll, H. A., ... & Tiemeier, H. (2012). Breastfeeding and Its Relation to Maternal Sensitivity and Infant Attachment. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 33(5), 396-404. Breastfeeding for longer was associated with more maternal sensitivity, more attachment security, and less attachment disorganization, but bottle-feeding did not necessarily harm the mother-infant relationship.

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