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Parenting a Baby
About nine months ago, my wife and I were blessed with a wonderful little bundle of joy baby boy! Since our other kiddos are ages 14 and 22 years, we're re–learning a lot about babies. We're also being given a lot of advice about how to proceed, as well as plenty of books on the subject.
Some books say, "Don't hold them too much! They'll get spoiled."
Other books say, "Make sure they're fed on a tight time schedule. Make them wait until it's time for a feeding."
Some of our friends say, "Just let him cry it out at night until he falls asleep."
Fortunately, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend eleven years of my life learning from the scientific research on child development. From this blessing, I can say without any reservation that the advice mentioned above is dead wrong.
In a nutshell, here's what research really says about parenting during the first year of life:
Love them and take good care of them. Comfort them when they cry. Feed them when they are hungry. Hold them as often as you can. Don't worry for a moment about spoiling them by giving them too much attention.
In our Early Childhood Package, we teach that the first year of life is all about bonding and attachment. As the second year looms closer, parents find more and more opportunities to set and enforce limits. The more practical tools we have for doing both, the more successful we will be!
Thanks for reading.
Dr. Charles Fay
Co-founder of "Parenting with Love and Logic"
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