I have several friends who call their babies 'little monkeys'. That is actually inaccurate. They are little apes, y'all.
Bonobo baby with mom Kiri. Photo credit: Laura Horn, Memphis Zoo.
According to the research, the babies of animals that are meant to be left alone for long periods of time (cache or nesting mammals) are much more competent at birth. Those babies can keep themselves warm, can move around on their own some, and are natural hiders. The milk of their mothers is very rich and fatty and can keep them full and happy for the whole day, while mom is away hunting or scavenging. That milk takes more energy to produce.
Carry animals, on the other hand, have babies who are totally helpless. They don't have thick fur or fat deposits to keep them warm. They don't know how to hide. They can't control their movements well. They are basically big needy sacks of flesh. The milk of the mother is less rich, less filling, and has much less fat. The babies need the mother to be RIGHT THERE all the time keeping them warm, safe, and fed.
Which one of those sounds like a human? :D I'm going to go with the useless crying flesh bag. No offense, human babies. I feel like this is really great evidence FOR attachment parenting, against cry it out, and for some degree of co-sleeping. I am interested to hear rebuttals, though.
The reason WHY human babies are so helpless is also one of the reasons why our species has done so exceedingly well: the brain. Competent, independent animals babies are born with their brains pretty much totally developed. Human babies are born with such undeveloped brains that the first three months of life is often referred to as the 'fourth tri-mester'. I'd love to get into more detail about that, as well!
If the human baby was born with a more developed brain, its little head would not fit out of the birth canal. We would have to evolve bigger vaginas!
So human babies are born very immature, developing, and helpless. If they don't get physical contact they will actually die. They need loving touch to feel secure and appropriately socially bonded. There are LOADS of important, feel good hormones that are released by touch. The baby needs to feel safe, secure, and protected because it has no way to protect itself and no way to know that it is safe without you. Amazing.
If a baby is left in distress its brain releases cortisol. Cortisol is a strange hormone. It is great in appropriate doses at the right time in development. Cortisol is crucial in fetal lung development. It has a lot of important functions in the human body BUT in large doses it damages neurotransmitters, stifles growth, and can cause permanent brain damage. A stressed out baby is a baby possibly causes brain damage to itself. We gotta help baby feel safe and secure by making sure a caretaker is with baby as much as possible. In the wild, that baby would be carried around nonstop for the first many months. I hope I am a carry mom and keep my little ape safe and happy!
Carry animals, on the other hand, have babies who are totally helpless. They don't have thick fur or fat deposits to keep them warm. They don't know how to hide. They can't control their movements well. They are basically big needy sacks of flesh. The milk of the mother is less rich, less filling, and has much less fat. The babies need the mother to be RIGHT THERE all the time keeping them warm, safe, and fed.
Which one of those sounds like a human? :D I'm going to go with the useless crying flesh bag. No offense, human babies. I feel like this is really great evidence FOR attachment parenting, against cry it out, and for some degree of co-sleeping. I am interested to hear rebuttals, though.
The reason WHY human babies are so helpless is also one of the reasons why our species has done so exceedingly well: the brain. Competent, independent animals babies are born with their brains pretty much totally developed. Human babies are born with such undeveloped brains that the first three months of life is often referred to as the 'fourth tri-mester'. I'd love to get into more detail about that, as well!
If the human baby was born with a more developed brain, its little head would not fit out of the birth canal. We would have to evolve bigger vaginas!
So human babies are born very immature, developing, and helpless. If they don't get physical contact they will actually die. They need loving touch to feel secure and appropriately socially bonded. There are LOADS of important, feel good hormones that are released by touch. The baby needs to feel safe, secure, and protected because it has no way to protect itself and no way to know that it is safe without you. Amazing.
If a baby is left in distress its brain releases cortisol. Cortisol is a strange hormone. It is great in appropriate doses at the right time in development. Cortisol is crucial in fetal lung development. It has a lot of important functions in the human body BUT in large doses it damages neurotransmitters, stifles growth, and can cause permanent brain damage. A stressed out baby is a baby possibly causes brain damage to itself. We gotta help baby feel safe and secure by making sure a caretaker is with baby as much as possible. In the wild, that baby would be carried around nonstop for the first many months. I hope I am a carry mom and keep my little ape safe and happy!
Annotated Bibliography
Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Foods. Nina Planck. 2009.
An overview of good eating choices from fertility on. This break summarizes the evidence that humans are carry animals and therefore should be nursing and carrying their babies as much as possible until the baby self weans.
Why newborn babies can't walk. Lin Edwards. http://phys.org/news180340234.html 18 Dec 2009.
Human newborns can't walk because the time it takes an animal to start to walk is related to how it walks (heels or toes) and the complexity of the brain in relation to the gestation period. Human beings fit perfectly into the model with other animals when these things are compared. (I love how animal we are!)
Science Says: excessive crying could be harmful.
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/health-concerns/fussy-baby/science-says-excessive-crying-could-be-harmful
This goes over in great detail the problems with excessive crying.
This goes over in great detail the problems with excessive crying.
Laura Jeffcoat left this comment on the Facebook link. I wanted to keep it here for future reference.
ReplyDeleteVery nice article. However, you may also want to include, human babies left on their own become unbonded and attachment disorder can develop. In the early 1960s, it was a "trend" to have the babies "self soothe". This maybe good advice for an overly attentive parent, who hovers about her child, but it lead to babies with flat heads from laying in the crib too long, unbonded with anyone, trust issues about security. Yes, they grow up to be very independent, unfeeling, anti-social and very little connection to mankind. Wiki gave a good statement about it - The inhibited form is described as "a failure to initiate or respond...to most social interactions, as manifest by excessively inhibited responses" and such infants do not seek and accept comfort at times of threat, alarm or distress, thus failing to maintain 'proximity', an essential element of attachment behavior. The disinhibited form shows "indiscriminate sociability...excessive familiarity with relative strangers" (DSM-IV-TR) and therefore a lack of 'specificity', the second basic element of attachment behavior.
Another scary but interesting diagnosis due to this lack of bonding is Reactive Attachment Disorder. also known as RAD. While RAD is likely to occur following neglectful and abusive childcare, there should be no automatic diagnosis on this basis alone as children can form stable attachments and social relationships despite marked abuse and neglect or they can burn your house down, with you in it. It is important to do bonding exercises with these children daily, and seek professional healthcare.
The 4th trimester theory is VERY interesting.
ReplyDeleteI read about it in the book "Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Karp. That's a good book to read toward the end of your pregnancy in preparation for the first few months with your new little one.
My unscientific yet educated guess it's that detached parenting and all day every day daycare is a contributing factor to the rise in autism. The Nurture contribution to the Nature side. With 1 in every 88 kids on the spectrum, something has got to change.