vineri, 15 octombrie 2010

Children 'should sleep with parents until they're five'



Margot Sunderland, director of education at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London, says the practice, known as “co-sleeping”, makes children more likely to grow up as calm, healthy adults.

Sunderland, author of 20 books, outlines her advice in The Science of Parenting, to be published later this month.

She is so sure of the findings in the new book, based on 800 scientific studies, that she is calling for health visitors to be issued with fact sheets to educate parents about co-sleeping.

“These studies should be widely disseminated to parents,” said Sunderland. “I am sympathetic to parenting gurus — why should they know the science? Ninety per cent of it is so new they bloody well need to know it now. There is absolutely no study saying it is good to let your child cry.”

She argues that the practice common in Britain of training children to sleep alone from a few weeks old is harmful because any separation from parents increases the flow of stress hormones such as cortisol.

Her findings are based on advances in scientific understanding over the past 20 years of how children’s brains develop, and on studies using scans to analyse how they react in particular circumstances.

For example, a neurological study three years ago showed that a child separated from a parent experienced similar brain activity to one in physical pain.

Sunderland also believes current practice is based on social attitudes that should be abandoned. “There is a taboo in this country about children sleeping with their parents,” she said.

“What I have done in this book is present the science. Studies from around the world show that co-sleeping until the age of five is an investment for the child. They can have separation anxiety up to the age of five and beyond, which can affect them in later life. This is calmed by co-sleeping.”

Symptoms can also be physical. Sunderland quotes one study that found some 70% of women who had not been comforted when they cried as children developed digestive difficulties as adults.

Sunderland’s book puts her at odds with widely read parenting gurus such as Gina Ford, whose advice is followed by thousands.

Ford advocates establishing sleep routines for babies from a very early age in cots “away from the rest of the house” and teaching babies to sleep “without the assistance of adults”.

In her book The Complete Sleep Guide for Contented Babies and Toddlers she writes that parents need time by themselves: “Bed sharing . . . more often than not ends up with parents sleeping in separate rooms” and exhausted mothers, a situation that “puts enormous pressure on the family as a whole”.

Annette Mountford, chief executive of the parenting organisation Family Links, confirmed that the norm for children in Britain was to be encouraged to sleep in cots and beds, often in separate bedrooms, from an early age. “Parents need their space,” she said. “There are definite benefits from encouraging children into their own sleep routine in their own space.”

Sunderland says moving children to their own beds from a few weeks old, even if they cry in the night, has been shown to increase the flow of cortisol.

Studies of children under five have shown that for more than 90%, cortisol rises when they go to nursery. For 75%, it falls whenever they go home.

Professor Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist at Washington State University, who has written a foreword to the book, said Sunderland’s arguments were “a coherent story that is consistent with neuroscience. A wise society will take it to heart”.

Sunderland argues that putting children to sleep alone is a peculiarly western phenomenon that may increase the chance of cot death, also known as sudden infant death syndrome (Sids). This may be because the child misses the calming effect on breathing and heart function of lying next to its mother.

“In the UK, 500 children a year die of Sids,” Sunderland writes. “In China, where it [co-sleeping] is taken for granted, Sids is so rare it does not have a name.”


luni, 11 octombrie 2010

Sugarul persistent


Sugarul persistent

În ultima suta de ani specia noastra s-a schimbat. În emisfera nordica agricultura, asa cum a existat în secolele anterioare, s-a sfarsit. Populatiile s-au acumulat în orase. Bolile infectioase au fost partial controlate. Mortalitatea infantila a scazut si longevitatea a crescut. Noua demografie a tarilor dezvoltate este în prezent formata din familii în care exista doar un singur copil, sub rata de înlocuire. Moartea a disparut din viata de zi cu zi, aruncata in spitale. Nu mai e naturala. Exista întotdeauna cineva pe care sa se dea vina - de obicei un medic incompetent sau serviciile de sanatate. Se cheltuiesc milioane pe medicamente inutile. Intr-o lume de nerecunoscut, condusa de oficiali gri, urmasi ambitiosi ai clasei medii ridicati la rang de sefi de gasca, au disparut semnele originilor noastre "de jos". Este uimitor modul în care copiii sunt înca alaptati. Dupa o nastere chirurgicala într-un mediu steril, bebelusii umani sunt alaptati la san. E adevarat, o fac la sani rusinosi si ascunsi, nu pe terase. Dar sug, nefericitii, în scurtul lor stadiul pre-cultural, aproape la fel ca stramosii lor din Pleistocen. Sug sani provizorii, sani in drumul spre viitoarea cupa D. Sug nevinovati în întunericul unei camere. Daca ar suge in public, mamele ar fi amendate. În public numai lapte praf, biberon, suzeta. Biberon cu tetina anatomica – asa cum fabricantii isi imagineaza mamelonul supt.
Alaptarea este tolerata, atata timp cat copilul este nevinovat. Apoi, acesta devine indecent. Un copil care pune mâna in decolteul mamei este un tigan. Sugarul persistent nu este marinarul racitor cântat de Caetano. Este un animal care isi tareste mama în noroiul biologiei. O fiinta neolitica. Resturi de taran. O versiune prescurtata a profesorului José Rodrigues dos Santos, tratandu-si mama drept suedeza. Iar femeia lactanta întârziata nu poate fi decat o neo-hippie intarziata, cu fuste lungi colorate, scutece de panza si lipsa de deodorant.
Pentru fiecare copil, un trusou de haine de designer, un patut pe masura, o scoica de transport model A, un carut, un sac de nécessaire, un balansoar, o cadita, o gama completa de cosmetice pentru copii, buletin, carte de sanatate, carte de vaccinuri. Ca nu mai vezi copilul? Cui îi pasa. Ceea ce conteaza este ideea de copil. Sentimentul de pace si liniste pe care ideea de copil o declanseaza, accesoriile sale, chiar daca ascunde copilul real. Copilul real este colici, tortura sanului, lipsa de somn, inchisoare domiciliara. Din fericire e rar si traim bine si fara el.



Traducerea e evident ca nu imi apartine :)

MI-a placut la nebunie!!! Este de pastrat! :)

duminică, 10 octombrie 2010

Parlamentul EU




Mi-au placut la nebunie aceste fotografii... M-au induiosat profund.