Attachment Parenting

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Nursing Through The Holidays "The holiday season is here, and with it comes visitors, celebrations, and increased busyness. This time of year can be filled with joy and laughter, but it can also be filled with stress and anxiety.	What Is Gentle Parenting? It Emphasizes a Strong Parent-Child Bond "One of the biggest misconceptions of gentle parenting is that there are no consequences... read more
2 in 3 children in Latin America and the Caribbean experience violence at home “It is appalling that most children in Latin America and the Caribbean are exposed to violence almost from birth and, often, by the people they most... read more	Why Your Child's Secure Attachment Is More Important Than A Clean House "... read more
Family relationships matter and parenting education can help "Parent education provides caregivers with knowledge, resources, skill-building practices, and it helps parents and caregivers learn tools and strategies to... read more	I'm a Parenting Educator: Here Are 5 Things I Never Do With My Own Kids ... read more
Zambia prohibits all corporal punishment of children! Zambia prohibits all corporal punishment of children!	Strict parenting may hard-wire depression risk into a child’s DNA “We discovered that perceived harsh parenting, with physical punishment and psychological manipulation, can introduce an additional set of instructions on how a gene is read to become hard-wired into DNA.
2022 November - December Training For The East Asia, Oceania And Americas Time Zones	Commentary: Spare the rod, respect the child — it might be less painful for all in the long run "The findings — that Singapore parents frequently beat and shame their kids — shouldn’t come as a surprise, since these deep-seated cultural practices are the norm in Asia. Even so, the study is worth close attention for two reasons:

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Journal Studies

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.	Responsive Feeding is Embedded in a Theoretical Framework of Responsive Parenting Black, M. M., & Aboud, F. E. (2011). Responsive feeding is embedded in a theoretical framework of responsive parenting. The Journal of Nutrition, 141(3), 490-494. While more research is needed, the benefits of responsive feeding on child nutrition and growth are expected to be as great as responsive parenting is to child outcome.
Responsive Feeding and Child Undernutrition in Low-and Middle-Income Countries Bentley, M. E., Wasser, H. M., & Creed‐Kanashiro, H. M. (2011). Responsive feeding and child undernutrition in low-and middle-income countries. The Journal of Nutrition, 141(3), 502-507. Research on responsive feeding is promising, but more research is needed to define child outcomes.	Quality of Early Maternal-Child Relationship and Risk of Adolescent Obesity Anderson, S. E., Gooze, R. A., Lemeshow, S., & Whitaker, R. C. (2012). Quality of early maternal–child relationship and risk of adolescent obesity. Pediatrics, 129(1), 132-140. Insecure attachment with low maternal sensitivity at ages 2 and 3 years was associated with teenage obesity.
Perceived Partner Support in Pregnancy Predicts Lower Maternal and Infant Distress Stapleton, L. R. T., Schetter, C. D., Westling, E., Rini, C., Glynn, L. M., Hobel, C. J., & Sandman, C. A. (2012). Perceived partner support in pregnancy predicts lower maternal and infant distress. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(3), 453-463. Women who received more support from their partners during pregnancy experienced less distress postpartum and reported that their infants were happier, too.	Effective Intervention Programming: Improving Maternal Adjustment Through Parent Education Farris, J. R., Bert, S. S. C., Nicholson, J. S., Glass, K., & Borkowski, J. G. (2012). Effective Intervention Programming: Improving Maternal Adjustment Through Parent Education. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 40(3), 1-13 Parent education delivered through in-person and web-based classes was helpful for mothers of toddlers, whether or not they reported behavior problems.

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