Although today was supposed to be the Use Nurturing Touch blog carnival, we are going to push it back one month and combine it with next month’s carnival on Ensuring Safe Sleep, Physically and Emotionally. If you’ve already submitted your carnival post on nurturing touch, rest assured that it will make it into next month’s carnival post. If you’re here looking for information on using nurturing touch including babywearing, infant massage, and more, fear not for I have compiled a list of links for you to peruse.
Use Nurturing Touch – One of API’s Eight Principles of Parenting
Babies are born with urgent and intense needs and depend completely on others to meet them. Nurturing touch helps meet a baby’s need for physical contact, affection, security, stimulation and movement. Parents who choose a nurturing approach to physical interactions with their children promote development of healthy attachments. Even as children get older their need to stay connected through touch remains strong.
Babywearing: The Benefits of Carrying Your Baby in a Sling (PDF)
On the community college campus where I teach, I am “the lady with the baby.” At my local grocery store, the staff knows me as “the woman who carries the baby all the time.” Complete strangers often stop me to ask, “Is that comfortable?” when they see me with my son tucked into a pouch or nestled into a mei tai. And yet, I did not set out to become a babywearing mom. In fact, if you’d asked me about it before my first son was born, I would probably have voiced the same skepticism I sometimes get from people. But four years and two sons have taught me the benefits of babywearing—for me and for my children—and now, I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
Correct Positioning For the Safety & Comfort of Your Newborn (PDF)
Often parents assume that if the baby has difficulty breathing he will fuss or cry. The majority of infants will protest if they are struggling to breathe; however newborns, babies born prematurely or infants with low tone or developmental delays may not communicate their distress.
You can also discuss babywearing, infant massage, and more in our Use Nurturing Touch forum or browse the Use Nurturing Touch category here on API Speaks.
Really great information! Hopefully that last PDF will help new parents that might have been scared by that sling recall a while back.