Resources

Continuum Concept

07-02-16t:02:z

The aim of the Continuum Concept, shaped by Jean Leidloff, is to raise well-integrated children who have strong self-preservation instincts and the ability to peacefully discern and articulate their needs. Leidloff observed the peaceful ways of the children while living with Stone Age Indians in South America, and has enlightened us with an alternative to the Western way of raising children through discipline, doting and parental absence in the guise of child independence. Leidloff advises keeping your child on your body at all times during the infant stages, including sleeping with your children, allowing them to have their own experiences through self-exploration, and not reacting adversely to your child's actions, but instead remaining neutral.

]]> Our story:
When I was pregnant two unrelated friends recommended I read Jean Leidloff's book The Continuum Concept. I was enthralled with the concept and the idea of being able to raise a calm, self-assured, cooperative child. As soon as I read the book I knew that raising my child in-arms, breast feeding on call, and sleeping in a family bed was the way I wanted to usher my child into the world. So many people commented on, as a baby, how calm, happy and quiet our baby was. He never cried because he always had his needs met. Being so close to my baby, I always knew what he needed at any given moment. It made being a new parent fun and easy. A group of parents in our area joined together on a regular basis to discuss, learn and understand more about the 'concept'. The biggest challenge we all seem to have had was figuring out how to adapt the Indian's tribal way of living to our fast-paced, individualistic, industrialized society. My conclusion is, you have to take the parts of this concepts that makes sense to you and weave them into the way of life that you know and with which you are comfortable.

Attachment Parenting

07-02-16t:02:z

Peaceful Parenting for a Peaceful World

www.attachmentparenting.org

Attachment Parenting is a philosophy based on the practice of nurturing parenting methods that create strong emotional bonds, also known as 'secure attachment', between the infant and parent(s). This style of parenting encourages responsiveness to the infant or child's emotional needs, and develops trust that their emotional needs will be met. As a result, this strong attachment helps the child develop secure, empathic, peaceful, and enduring relationships.

]]> Our story:
My husband and I agreed from the very beginning of Keala Kaj's life that sleeping with him felt so right. Our son never cried for the first two weeks of his life because his needs were always met and the trust we are building has never been severed. Without having a name for it at the time, we were instinctively following the philosophy of Attachment Parenting. For us it is about building the trust, confidence and bond that our child needs to know beyond a doubt that we love him unconditionally. We are committed to being as spiritually and physically present with our child as we can possibly be. Attachment Parenting provides us with a definition for our philosophy, support when we need it, guidelines when we feel lost and a group of like minded parents to turn to when we need insight. Now at the age of two years old, Keala Kaj is a very happy individual.

Cord Blood Registry

07-02-16t:02:z

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity - Only at Birth

www.cordblood.com

This web site has a tremendous amount of information about cord blood stem cells, why they are important to our body's defenses, how they are collected, when they are frozen and how and when they can be used in the future to correct potential problems. The cord blood is extracted from the umbilical cord and placenta just after delivery, preferably while the cord is still pulsing. The cord blood contains special stem cells, building blocks of the blood and immune system and are genetically unique to each family. Collecting and freezing your newborn's cord blood is a kind of safeguard and can potentially save his or her life one day. Siblings have up to 50 % chance of being able to use the stem cells as well.

]]> Our story:
A couple of weeks before the birth of our son my husband mentioned he had heard about some program that stored stem cells retrieved from the umbilical cord. Then at my baby shower (which turned out to be 5 days before the birth) I received the magazine Baby Talk which I was leafing through and came across an advertisement from the above company. We called the company right away. Over night, they sent their packet which we passed on to our midwife not knowing that night we would be needing it. The difficulty in our case was, when Keala Kaj's head come out the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and had stopped pulsing. He was pulled out immediately and given a few breaths of life. We then tried extracting blood from the cord and placenta but only got a third of what they normally recommend. We decided to go ahead and freeze the 26,000,000 stem cells we extracted as opposed to the 500,000,000 stem cells they normally freeze, because we were assured that this number would still be helpful.

Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson

07-02-16t:02:z

www.empoweringpeople.com and www.positivediscipline.com

Positive DisciplineJane Nelsen wishes to change our perception of discipline to a more positive, affirming way of interacting with our children (or students - she does a lot of classroom training too). Rather than punishing a child for doing 'bad', it's the parent's responsibility to realize the deeper reason for the child's 'mis' behavior and communicate with the child as an equal. She also emphasizes fostering a connection between the child, their family and their community, giving younger members a voice to have meaningful input so they feel useful and develop a sense of belonging. This concept picks up where the Continuum Concept leaves off, around age two.

]]> Our story:
Four months ago I took one of Jane Nelsen's day long workshops and found the information very helpful. Our son has just turned two years old and even prior to that I was already using positive discipline 'time-out'; according to Jane Nelsen and experienced a wonderfully positive response from my child. Jane Nelsen's 'time-out' is quite different than the one we have heard so much about from child psychologists in the last ten years. She suggests creating a supportive, welcoming space where our children can go when they feel the need to misbehave. It is a place where they can take a step back from life and the need to respond, a place where they can find their center and inner calm. Then they are replenished and equipped to join the tribe again. She also offers many other suggestions on ways to respond positively to your child's misbehaviors. We have obviously just started on this path but I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to this positive way of disciplining.

The two books that were recommended to us, of the many that Jane Nelsen has written, are Positive Time-Out and Positive Discipline A-Z.

Sign with Your Baby

07-02-16t:02:z

www.sign2me.com

This expansive website details the importance of allowing your infant early communication through sign language. Children can begin signing as early as 6-7 months, and through using physical gesticulations they learn to integrate audio, visual and kinesthetic learning. In addition, Joseph Garcia states that sign language provides a multitude of benefits, including "... reduced frustration for parent and child, a stronger parent-child bond, and accelerated verbal-language development."

Research has shown that when you sign with your baby before verbal language begins your
child will:

Be less frustrated
Actually speak earlier
Have a higher IQ
Develop a larger vocabulary
Show enhanced self-esteem
Become a better reader

]]> Our story:
At around age six months, my husband and I started signing with our son Keala Kaj. We introduced three signs of words we frequently used: 'more', 'eat' and 'toilet'. A couple of weeks later we added to his vocabulary 'drink', 'nursing', and 'gentle'. By about eight months of age Keala Kaj started signing his first word, more'. It was an incredible moment when he was able to communicate what he wanted! Soon to follow, he signed dog, eat and drink. He also quickly caught on to the sign for happy. I love that one. It also happened to be his first spoken word. He definitely is a happy baby! Our experiences of signing with our baby were tremendous and I highly recommend everybody opening the door of communication with their baby in this way. It has been a very rewarding experience for us.

Elimination Communication

07-02-15t:02:z

Informational web sites:
www.timl.com/tt/

chat group/forum:
www.egroups.com/group/eliminationcommunication

This concept advocates that diapers are not necessary in raising infants, and helps to tune parents in to their child's intuitive signals when they need to eliminate. A normal, healthy infant is indeed aware of their bodily function of elimination and can learn to communicate from infancy so parents can respond. By using diapers, we condition and thereby train our babies to go in them. Later the child must unlearn this training. This can be confusing and a traumatic experience for the child.

]]> Our story:
We started potty training our son from the age of three months. We were able to get poops in the potty early on with very few misses (although I do have some very funny poopy stories). The peeing was much more of a challenge and sometimes it felt like it was all for naught. Finally at around 8 - 9 months he started to communicate his need to go by grabbing for his penis. Since around 14 months Keala has been completely potty trained, even through the night. The hard work finally paid off, it is so wonderful for me and I know it is positive for him too. No more diapers!! I hope you give it a try, it's so worth it. The book we used is Infant Potty Training by Laura Boucke, (White-Boucke Publishing).