
by Linda Folden Palmer, D.C.
Author of Baby Matters: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring for Your Baby
Breastfeeding isn’t only about providing mother’s milk. While seldom recognized in literature, doctors’ advice or common conversation, there’s a whole lot more to breastfeeding than nutrition and immunity, and some of this can be achieved during bottlefeeding as well.
Breastfeeding has taken quite a bashing over the last century. In order to rebuild acceptance of breastfeeding, breastfeeding advocates have focused on the importance its nutritive and immune support roles. But breastfeeding is designed to be much more than just providing food — it is a time for nursing, a time for comfort and nurturing. This is a time for studying and memorizing each other’s faces, for speaking or singing to your baby and developing her trust and nonverbal communication.
Babies clearly seek nursing in order to ease the pain of a bump or illness, to relieve stress or to regain security after being frightened. Read the rest of this entry »