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Page 3
There are many ways to do this. First of all, bottle-feeding mothers should consider pumping breastmilk to put in the bottles. Bottle-feeding mothers can feed their baby on-cue--when they show signs of hunger. This may mean preparing small bottles in advance so baby can be fed quickly and can eat as much or as little as he needs at the time and never forcing him to finish the bottle. They can cuddle their baby so they can see their baby's face, and they can look into their baby's eyes while feeding him. Sometimes they might want to lift their shirt up so baby can rest skin-to-skin against his mama while being bottle-fed. They can hold their babies while they nurse from the bottle, and they can hold their baby's bottle for him as long as their baby lets them. This means avoiding bottle-propping and resisting the urge to encourage their baby to learn to hold his own bottle. Instead of giving their baby a bottle in the stroller they could, for instance, consider offering their baby a bottle while wearing him in a sling. Some people fear that this style of parenting creates fussy babies. The opposite is true. Attachment parenting helps children to meet their own unique potential and expands a child's capacity to love and care for other people. Clearly, some babies come out the of the womb seeming to be upset with the world. These babies cry when they are put down, cry when they want to nurse (which may be several time an hour), cry when mommy tries to put them in their crib to sleep, etc. These babies have very definite needs, and parents who practice attachment parenting who have fussy babies tend to call them "high-need" rather than fussy because they believe that when their child cries and is upset, they are expressing their needs in the only way they know how. Being blessed with a high-need child can be quite a shock, and parents who have only "easy" babies will never fully understand what having a truly fussy baby means. Attachment parenting suits high-need babies particularly well. Usually these babies enjoy being held a lot and holding them as much as possible, or at least several hours every day, helps their mama get to know her baby and helps to avoid much crying for carried babies simply cry less. This means they have more time to do other things such as learn to communicate in other ways besides crying. When their cues are responded to it encourages them to communicate in other ways.
The copyright of the article An Introduction to Attachment Parenting - Page 3 in Infants is owned by . Permission to republish An Introduction to Attachment Parenting - Page 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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