Attachment Parenting

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I Love Doing Art, Just Not With My Kids: How I Got Over Myself And You Can, Too! Underestimating the amount of mess that can be made with two cans of shaving cream was a grave error in judgment on my part.	Celebrate Your Village! Warm relationships with other adults sustain us when we're struggling or feeling isolated. These "villages" are our connected communities of caring adults who support us in nurturing our relationships with our children.
6 Tips To Getting Our Kids To Listen Better Parents spend a significant amount of time talking to kids.	Add More Hygge To Your Child’s Holiday Season What an exciting time of the year! The wish lists are getting longer. My evening walks have been so pleasant as neighbors are putting up twinkling lights that add such cheer to an otherwise gloomy night.
Quick Ideas To Reconnect With Children This Holiday Season Making time to share time and interests with your child refills your love-tank and lets you bounce back after struggles. Small moments in every day, every week, keep us connected.	The Family Table: Stay Connected Through Mealtimes Why regularly share the evening meal as a family? How does this routine activity serve us beyond nourishment? It has been said that the table is the heart of the home. At the table, we rejoin the pack in a timeless ritual.
What's really going on when a child is 'overtired' – and how to help them go to sleep "Anyone who’s cared for a young child will recognise the signs.	Revised and Updated The Baby Book Coming December 6!
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

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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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