For Immediate Release
Contact: Art Yuen
Telephone: 800-850-8320
Email: development at attachmentparenting.org
Nashville, TN – September 29, 2010 – Attachment Parenting International (API, www.attachmentparenting.org), a non-profit global network of parenting support groups with more than 60 chapters in North America, along with partners, AskDrSears.com, Mothering Magazine, Infant Massage USA, Dr Sears L.E.A.N, the International Childbirth Education Association, Lamaze International, and Attachment Parenting Canada, launch the third annual Attachment Parenting Month, celebrated around the world according to this year’s theme, "Full of Love: Parenting to meet the emotional and physical needs of children."
"We believe that secure attachments are so foundational to overall health, they should have their own RDA! Through AP Month this year, we seek to incorporate secure attachments into the great cultural cook and play books of "Good Health," said Art Yuen, AP Month event coordinator.
"Absent the essential ingredient of caring adult-child relationships, our children are unable to effectively self regulate and may turn more readily to ineffective, even harmful substitutes," added Yuen. "Junk snacks and sedentary activities are readily available and too frequently and stealthily transformed into unhealthy emotional comforts."
But simply changing these two variables is only part of improving the health recipe. Making sure our children are emotionally full with meaningful connections and secure attachments to us is one of the best ways we can help reduce their reliance on emotional connections to food, low activity, other unhealthy substances, people or objects. We want our children attached securely to us, not other things, but we all need help and support to do this.
That's where AP Month comes in! We're raising awareness about how we can establish healthy positive connections as an important part of our child's diet.
We invite communities to join with us as we work to draw attention to and work to provide the support and information necessary for parents to raise whole, healthy, strong children who posses healthy emotional and physical appetites. Healthy connections are indeed the foundations for healthy bodies.
The month full of events sponsored by Attachment Parenting chapters and partners across the country will spotlight the critical importance of parenting with emotional and physical health in mind, providing information and helping API to carry on its message.
During the month of October, AP Month partners will be making appearances at several conferences across the nation, as well as hosting major conferences. A free daily family activity calendar of motivating tips and thoughts will launch; API Speaks, the blog of Attachment Parenting International will host a "Full of Love" blog carnival; API Live! Teleseminar will host Dr. Sears L.E.A.N. program for parents and children; API Reads will feature an online discussion on the book Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by the Sears family; essays and photo entries will illustrate the theme; a lively auction will help sustain the education and support efforts of API's mission; and a national membership campaign will help spread the word about the importance of parents, not just programs, in their children's health.
"Attachment Parenting is moving above the radar," said William Sears, MD, noted parenting author, speaker and founder of www.AskDrSears.com, who wrote his first book about Attachment Parenting in the 1970s. "More people are familiar with attachment parenting today, and more families practice the principles of attachment parenting today than ever before."
"We hope that our activities celebrating Attachment Parenting month will help to recognize the difference API has made and to continue to raise the profile of Attachment Parenting, enabling these communities to spread the word and benefit even more parents and their children," said Barbara Nicholson, author of Attached at the Heart and Co-founder of API.
AP Month Childhood Obesity Prevention Recipe:
Learning about, buying, making and serving the healthiest foods for my family each week: $100
Playing ball with the kids outside after work: $10 (lost ball allowance)
Preventing my child's need for "comfort food" through a secure attachment: priceless
Join in the celebration of AP Month and share the planned events through the AP Month Central web site:
apmonth.attachmentparenting.org.
Attachment Parenting is based in 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 children's emotional needs, enabling children to develop trust that their needs will be met. As a result, this strong attachment helps children develop the capacity for secure, empathic, peaceful, and enduring relationships that follow them into adulthood.
Attachment Parenting International (API) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member organization founded in 1994 to network with parents, professionals and like-minded organizations around the world. API is grateful to an impressive group of board and advisory board members for supporting parents and API's mission, including: Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears, R.N., author and co-sleeping specialist Dr. James McKenna, pediatrician Jay Gordon, author Isabelle Fox, Lu Hanessian of LetTheBabyDrive.com, Peggy O'Mara of Mothering Magazine, Linda Storm of Infant Massage USA, Judy Arnall of AP Canada, and Jan Hunt of the Natural Child Project, and many others, www.attachmentparenting.org.
Attachment Parenting Canada, is a non-profit organization of parents and professionals dedicated to providing parents, caregivers, and organizations, support for their parenting practices and services, validation for their parenting choices and current evidence-based information in order to make the best decisions for their parenting practices, www.attachmentparenting.ca.
Mothering Magazine, Mothering is like no other publication. It is an original. Born in 1976 out of the need for the natural family community to learn about raising healthy children, Mothering was the birthplace of the natural family lifestyle. www.mothering.com.
Infant Massage USA's mission is to promote nurturing touch through training, education, and research so that babies, parents, and caregivers are loved, valued, and respected throughout the world community, www.infantmassageusa.org.
AskDrSears.com is the online presence of William Sears, MD and Martha Sears, RN. After raising eight children and practicing pediatric medicine for more than 30 years, they have answered questions from thousands of parents, written 40+ pediatric books, articles in parenting magazines, and made appearances on more than 100 television programs, www.askdrsears.com.
Dr Sears L.E.A.N. is about creating a healthier community begins with having practical tools and information that make implementing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle simple. Dr. Sears has focused many years of his practice on helping others learn how easy healthy living can be through lifestyle, exercise, attitude and nutrition, the four pillars of health for expectant mothers, children, families, or employees, www.drsearslean.com.
International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA) is a professional organization that supports educators and health care professionals who believe in freedom to make decisions based on knowledge of alternatives in family-centered maternity and newborn care, www.icea.org.
Lamaze International promotes a natural, healthy and safe approach to pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting. Knowing that pregnancy and childbirth can be demanding on a woman's body and mind, Lamaze serves as a resource for information about what to expect and what choices are available during the childbearing years, www.lamaze.org.
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AP Month 2010 – Full of Love – Statistics and Articles
Collected select obesity stats excerpted with permission from Peekaboo Parenting:
Childhood obesity data:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. ("Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, 1999-2002?; Oct. 6, 2004)
Obesity-associated annual hospital costs for children and youth more than tripled over two decades, rising from $35 million in 1979-1981 to $127 million in 1997-1999. ("Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, 2005," Institute of Medicine.)
Nearly one-third of U.S. Children aged 4 to 19 eat fast food every day, resulting in approximately six extra pounds per year, per child. Fast food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970. ("Effects of Fast-Food Consumption on Energy Intake and Diet Quality Among Children in a National Household Survey," Pediatrics, January 2004.)
For children born in the United States in 2000, the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives is estimated to be about 30 percent for boys and 40 percent for girls. ("Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, 2005," Institute of Medicine.)
In a population-based sample, approximately 60 percent of obese children aged 5 to 10 years had at least one cardiovascular disease risk factor, such as elevated total cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin or blood pressure, and 25 percent had two or more risk factors. ("Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, 2005," Institute of Medicine.)
Healthcare cost data:
Obesity-associated annual hospital costs for children and youth more than tripled over two decades, rising from $35 million in 1979-1981 to $127 million in 1997-1999. ("Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, 2005," Institute of Medicine.)
Obese individuals spend 36% more on health care costs and 77% more on medications per year than individuals of normal weight.
Lost productivity related to obesity among Americans ages 17 to 64 costs $3.9 billion a year.
Research links on obesity and attachment
Insecurity may contribute to obesity
Attachment anxiety, disinhibited eating and body mass index in adulthood
Intergenerational study on the affects of attachment style on eating behaviors
Early trauma and adult obesity: Is psychological dysfunction the mediating mechanism?
General articles
Norma Gugger-Archer, "Does your son suffer from 'Starving Boy Syndrome?'" Big Apple Parents, October 2007.
Denise Grady, "Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials," The New York Times, August, 4, 2010.
Duff Wilson, "A Shift Toward Fighting Fat," The New York Times, July 28, 2010.
Obesity edges out smoking as the top health concern.
Theodore Dalrymple, "Our Big Problem," The Wall Street Journal, May 1-2, 2010.
Obesity is spreading and eating away at America's economy and health.
Kelly D. Brownell, "Nature and Nachos: How Fat Happens," The Wall Street Journal, May 1-2, 2010
Science explains the factors that make us vulnerable; nutritional labels explain the rest.
AP Month events:
NEW! 2010 ONLINE AUCTION
Child Essay Event
Adult Essay Event
Photo Event
Daily Calendar Event
Membership Special!
Special Teleseminars
Carnival of Blogs
Activate an INSTANT AP Month Fundraiser NOW!
Share and promote your AP Month Event!
Find an AP Month event near you!
API Reads Giveaways!
Visit API on Facebook!