One of the most critical things we as parents aim to do for our kids is to help them develop a secure attachment. We want them to feel safe in the world - or as safe as we can make them feel. You might hear people say that sleep training has no effect on attachment. Or that sleep training inherently ruins attachment. Neither are true, but there is a relationship and here to discuss the complex one…
Today is episode three of the special series covering our new book, "Dispelling Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Myths and What To Do Instead", published by Routledge and out in stores now. So we all now understand more about what normal infant sleep is like, but what about the context in which that takes place? We know it's not just sleep that defines childhood or how our children develop, but the…
Today is episode two of the special series covering our new book, "Dispelling Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Myths and What To Do Instead". When talking about sleep training, we can't get very far without talking about what is it parents can and should expect of their babies. That is, what is normal when we think about infant sleep? Joining me today to discuss this in more depth is Dr. Elaine Barry,…
What do you get when you put 7 academic women together who all want see an end to the sleep training era? A book, of course. I am thrilled to announce a mini-series for the Evolutionary Parenting podcast featuring interviews with all authors of the chapters in a new book out called 'Dispelling Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Myths and What to Do Instead', published by Routleged and out now where you buy…
If you have listened to a lot of my podcasts, you know I like to talk about sleep. It's one of the biggest topics for parents today. And part of why we have to talk about it is because those of us is WEIRD countries - Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic countries - get a very specific sleep message when we have our kids and that message is: Do NOT sleep with your children or…
When we think about raising our children, we often all have ideas of what is best and what we want to do. Not always are we able to achieve those goals – for better or worse. But the early years, especially 0 to 3, are crucial in our children’s neurological development and knowing what can benefit them and how we can overcome adversity in that time is something all parents should know. Returning…
Normalizing breastfeeding is an ongoing battle in some Western cultures. Even when someone starts out breastfeeding, many report not being able to meet their goals or face various obstacles in trying to nurse their children. One part of the equation is how breastfeeding is represented in these cultures. Is it accessible through various media? How is it perceived? Joining me today to help answer…
Our understanding and acceptance of Autism has evolved over the years towards a greater awareness of what we call neurodiversity - broadly, the idea that each brain is unique and what used to be considered "disorders" are not at all, but rather reflections of these uniquenesses with their own strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, we have also learned how valuable early intervention is for…
As we know, sleep is one of the most talked-about topics for new parents. None of them are getting enough, and everyone is worried about it. In Western cultures, parents are often made to feel that the only way to get sleep is to leave their baby to cry to learn to sleep alone, something called 'crying it out'. This can be modified slightly where parents leave their child for intervals of time,…
Bedtime. It's one of the biggest struggles parents face. Everyone is tired, we just want our kids to calm and go to sleep. But how does our bedtime affect their sleep? Often we hear that we need our kids to be independent at bedtime, do things on their own, that that will lead to a good sleep. The problem is that there hasn't really been any research on how these actions affect bedtime... until…
Raising good humans is hard. We all worry about if we're doing best and we don't always know how to do it. This is especially true when we start touching on topics we may not have experience with, like racism. Many of us may think that we can just try to raise kids who aren't racist and that will be enough. But it's not. We need to actively work to change the ingrained racism in our society and…
External validity. It's a topic that many of us don't really talk about. It's the idea that certain research findings only apply to certain groups. In sleep training, most people assume the research is applicable to all families, but is this the case? This is the question that Dr. Levita D'Souza and I examine this week as we talk about the research that provides us information on who takes part…