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Baby Wearing and More Links and Information
Why Wear Your Baby?
Lots of good reasons for you to wear your baby.
The Importance of the In-Arms Phase
By Jean Liedloff of The Liedloff Society for the Continuum Concept. Jean is the author of the book "The Continuum Concept," published in 1975 about the importance and impact of carrying babies.
Scientific Studies of Baby Wearing Benefits
Points made during discussions regarding the carrying of Infants and small children, by Dr. Eckhard Bonnet, Specialist in paediatrics, youth medicine, environmental medicine and sports medicine. Published in Krankengymnastik 50 Jg (1998) No.8
Increased Carrying Reduces Infant Crying
A Randomized Controlled Trial: The crying pattern of normal infants in industrialized societies is characterized by an overall increase until 6 weeks of age followed by a decline until 4 months of age with a preponderance of evening crying. We hypothesized that this "normal" crying could be reduced by supplemental carrying, that is, increased carrying throughout the day in addition to that which occurs during feeding and in response to crying.
Does infant carrying promote attachment?
An experimental study of the effects of increased physical contact on the development of attachment. Anisfeld E, Casper V, Nozyce M, Cunningham N. Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
The Origins of Love and Violence
A baby's developing body and brain mirror and reflect, lifelong, the emotional-sensory environment provided by its first primary relationship, that is with its mother. The Origins of Love & Violence (please see below) take root in this first, primary sensory environment. What we call "affectional bonding" or nurturing, or its absence-- very early in life--structures the developing brain to interpret the world and its relationships as peaceful, pleasurable and loving or hostile, painful and violent depending on trust or anxiety experienced in this first relationship.
Emotional Learning in Infants
The current paper examines subcortically based early emotional learning in infants from diverse cultures. We speculate about some long-term deleterious or beneficial effects of this early learning.
Unfounded fear of postural damage by carrying
Very often parents who want to carry their child in carrying devices or carrying slings are warned that it may cause spinal damage, especially if they want to start carrying before the child is able to sit unaided. A longitudinal study of 192 children (Kirkilionis, 1989, 1992) of carrying methods, demonstrating the daily duration of carrying and the start of carrying showed no relationship between carrying in the upright position and an increase in postural damage.