Head over to Nashville, Tennessee on August 29th and 30th for the celebration of Attachment Parenting Internationals 15th anniversary. Attachment Parenting International (API) was founded to provide parents information with the goal of improving the wellbeing of children and thus the community.  API continues to grow and build strong families around the world.  Some of the basic tenets of API include creating a strong emotional bond between parent and child.  A childs emotional needs are responded to which enables them to develop the capacity for secure, empathic, and peaceful relationships throughout their lives.

This wonderful event will feature some of the best known experts in pediatrics, medicine, psychology, anthropology, and parenting.  A panel will discuss “Making an Imapact Now:  Creating a Sustainable Legacy for Children”.  The amazing panel includes:

• Dr. William & Martha Sears – Pediatrician, RN, & Authors
• Ina May Gaskin – Director of The Farm Midwifery Center
• Mary Ann Cahill – La Leche League International Founder
• Dr. Isabelle Fox – Author and Clinical Psychologist
• Dr. James McKenna – anthropologist and Director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Lab at the University of Notre Dame
• Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker – founders of API & authors
and other special guests.

This event is a mere $10 for the general public.  Other events include fundraising featuring well known performers such as Vince Gill, children’s activities, Attached at the Heart book signing, silent auction, and family fitness.

Swaddling your baby is a great tool for calming young babies.  Once you swaddle you will be amazed at how it helps your baby settle when overstimulated and sleep longer.  Below is a quick run down on the technique. Check out our Moby Wrap swaddle blankets for a great selection of organic and regular fabrics.

• Lay your blanket on a flat surface such as a bed or the floor. 
• Fold down the top corner approximately 3-5 inches.
• Lay your baby on top of the blanket so that their neck rests at the top of the folded corner.
• Place your babies left arm straight down their side.  Grab the left corner of the blanket and pull across your babies’ body.  Tightly tuck the corner under the right side of your baby.
• Pull the bottom corner up across your baby and tuck it inside the blanket near their chest. 
• Place your babies right arm straight down their side.  You may have to hold it in place as you pull the right corner of the blanket across your baby.
• Pull the corner very tightly as you wrap the blanket all the way around your babies back.  You may have enough fabric left to pull around to the front and tuck the end in.  If this last corner is not wrapped tight enough, your baby will be able to free their hands.

Plants evolved to either encourage their consumption by tasting sweet or turn herbivores away by tasting bitter.  Humans taste buds evolved to detect which foods were nutritious and safe to eat. Sweet foods typically have a higher energy content than bitter foods, so it is of no surprise that people are drawn to sweet tasty treats.  However that is not the end of the story. 

 It turns out that there are two different gene sequences that make up our bitter taste buds.  Once sequence allows the compound that makes up bitter taste to pass unnoticed, while the other sequence will cause the bitter taste to be apparent.  So it is no wonder that some children will not think twice about eating a plate full of broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.  For those children who are labeled picky eaters it is not a picky disposition.  They truly do not like the taste of veggies, and it is due to genetic make up.

 If you or your spouse were a picky eater as a young child, there is a good chance your child will be too.  What is parent to do with a child that simply does not like their vegetables?  Cut your children a little slack, but make sure you still offer a variety of wholesome choices.  You can also resort to adding vegetable purees to food that you know they will like.  Some of our favorites are scrambled eggs with pureed cauliflower, pasta sauce with pureed sweet potato or carrot, and pancakes with pureed beets.

 Most importantly remember that in the end you learned to like vegetables, and your child will too.   A healthy dose of patience as well as repeated exposure to new foods, textures, colors, and smells is the best way to encourage your child to expand their palette.

Several months ago I stumbled on a cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld called Deceptively Delicious. She recommends pureeing vegetables and adding them to foods that you know your child will eat. Scrambled eggs with pureed cauliflower, chicken noodle soup with pureed sweet potato, and pink pancakes with pureed beets have become staples around our house. You cannot even taste the added vegetables.

I started following recipes in the cookbook, but now I simply add the pureed veggies to whatever I am cooking. Once you are ready to experiment on your own start small with proportions and add the vegetables to similar colored dishes. I make the purees monthly and freeze the extra portions until I am ready to use them.

Tricking your toddler into eating their veggies is a short term solution that can offer you peace of mind. However, remember to keep offering wholesome choices to your toddler. Most experts agree that it can take up to 20 times or more of offering a food before your baby or toddler tries it.

What If I Want To Wean My Baby?

     Breastfeeding your baby for even a day is the best baby gift you can give.  Breastfeeding is almost always the best choice for your baby.  If it doesn’t seem like the best choice for you right now, these guidelines may help.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR JUST A FEW DAYS, he will have received your colostrum, or early milk.  By providing antibodies and the food his brand-new body expects, nursing gives your baby his first – and easiest – “immunization”and helps get his digestive system going smoothly.  Breastfeeding is how your baby expects to start, and helps your own body recover from the birth.  Given how very much your baby stands to gain, and how little you stand to lose, it just makes good sense to breastfeed for at least a day or two, even if you plan to bottle-feed after that.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR FOUR TO SIX WEEKS, you will have eased him through the most critical part of his infancy.  Newborns who are not breastfed are much more likely to get sick or be hospitalized, and have many more digestive problems than breastfed babies.  After 4 to 6 weeks, you’ll probably have worked through any early nursing concerns, too.  Make a serious goal of nursing for a month, call La Leche League or a certified lactation consultant if you have any questions, and you’ll be in a better position to decide whether continued breastfeeding is for you.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 3 OR 4 MONTHS, her digestive system will have matured a great deal, and she will be much better able to tolerate the foreign substances in commercial formulas.  If there is a family history of allergies, though, you will greatly reduce her risk by waiting a few more months before adding anything at all to her diet of breastmilk.  And giving nothing but your milk for the first four months gives strong protection against ear infections for a whole year.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 6 MONTHS without adding any other food or drink, she will be much less likely to suffer an allergic reaction to formula or other foods later on; the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting until about 6 months to offer solid foods.  Nursing for at least 6 months helps ensure better health throughout your baby’s first year of life, reduces your little one’s risk of ear infections and childhood cancers, and reduces your own risk of breast cancer.  And exclusive, frequent breastfeeding during the first 6 months, if your periods have not returned, provides 98% effective contraception.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 9 MONTHS, you will have seen him through the fastest and most important brain and body development of his life on the food that was designed for him – your milk.  Nursing for at least this long will help ensure better performance all through his school years. Weaning may be fairly easy at this age… but then, so is nursing!  If you want to avoid weaning this early, be sure you’ve been available to nurse for comfort as well as just for food.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR A YEAR, you can avoid the expense and bother of formula.  Her one-year-old body can probably handle most of the table foods your family enjoys.  Many of the health benefits this year of nursing has given your child will last her whole life.  She will have a stronger immune system, for instance, and will be much less likely to need orthodontia or speech therapy.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nursing for at least a year, because it helps ensure normal nutrition and health for your baby.

     IF YOU NURSE YOUR BABY FOR 18 MONTHS, you will have continued to provide the nutrition, comfort, and illness protection your baby expects, at a time when illness is common in formula-fed babies.  Your baby is probably well started on table foods, too.  He has had time to form a solid bond with you – a healthy starting point for his growing independence. And he is old enough that you and he can work together on the weaning process, at a pace that he can handle.  A former U.S. Surgeon General said, “it is the lucky baby… that nurses to age two.”

     IF YOUR CHILD WEANS WHEN SHE IS READY, you can feel confident that you have met your baby’s physical and emotional needs in the most normal, healthy way.  In cultures where there is no pressure to wean, children tend to nurse for at least two years.  The World Health Organization and UNICEF strongly encourage breastfeeding through toddlerhood: “Breastmilk is an important source of energy and protein, and helps to protect against disease during the child’s second year of life.”  Our biology seems geared to a weaning age of between 2 1/2 and 7 years, and it just makes sense to build our children’s bones from the milk that was designed for them.  Your milk provides antibodies and other protective substances for as long as you continue nursing, and families of nursing toddlers often find that their medical bills are lower than their neighbors’ for years to come.  Research indicates that the longer a child nurses, the higher his intelligence.  Mothers who nurse long-term have a still lower risk of developing breast cancer.  Children who were nursed long-term tend to be very secure, and are less likely to suck their thumbs or carry a blanket.  Nursing can help ease both of you through the tears, tantrums, and tumbles that come with early childhood, and helps ensure that any illnesses are milder and easier to deal with.  It’s an all-purpose mothering tool you won’t want to be without!  Don’t worry that your child will nurse forever.  All children stop on their own, no matter what you do, and there are more nursing toddlers around than you might guess.

     WHETHER YOU NURSE FOR A DAY OR FOR SEVERAL YEARS, the decision to nurse your child is one you need never regret.  And whenever weaning takes place, remember that it is a big step for both of you.  If you choose to wean before your child is ready, be sure to do it gradually, and with love.