What Is Attachment Parenting And How Does It Affect Your Child Growth
Every parent has different style of nurturing their children and no one is obliged to follow a particular pattern to raise children. In fact, the best form of parenting is through trial and errors and when you eventually find out one style that suit your life and that of the children; it becomes your most favourite style of parenting.
Attachment parenting is one form of parenting, though its principle goes well with what most people will consider as natural way of nurturing a child but there is more to it than the ordinary belief.
Attachment parenting no doubt provides a wide range of psychological and physical benefits to both the parent and the child being nurtured.
So, what really is attachment parenting?
Attachment parenting is the nurturing connection between the child and the caregiver (mostly the child’s mother). It is based on the principle of attachment theory in developmental psychology in which a child develop strong emotional bond with whoever take cares of him or her during childhood which has lifelong consequences.
The nurturing connectedness is perceived as the proper way to raise independent, secure and emphatic children.
Ideally, parenting is never an easy task, but attachment parenting help alleviate the stress associated with parenting.
The more parents are used to their children, the easier the task of parenthood when the principle of attachment parenting is applied. You may not be perfect at the beginning when you’re applying the principle of attachment parenting, but the more you apply these principles into the bonding you form with your children, the more you’ll begin to experience lots of positivity about attachment parenting.
The 8 Principle of Attachment Parenting
- Preparation for pregnancy, birth and parenting; the supporters of attachment parenting believe that doing away with any negative thought or feelings about pregnancy with help parent to really prepare for the emotional challenging of being a parent.
- Breastfeeding with love and respect; the supporters of attachment parenting say, it is always good to feed with love and respect because it create a very strong bong between the parent and child, and it also teaches infants that the caregiver will meet and fulfil their needs.
- Respond with kindness; attachment parenting helps parent to consider all expressions of emotion from the infant as an effort to communicate with the caregiver which sometimes include tantrums. These efforts from the infants should be taken seriously and well-understood instead of dismissing or punishing the infant.
- Caregiver is advice to use nurturing touch in their contact with the infant, there must always be skin-to-skin touching and a better way to do this, is through bathing together with the child, carrying the baby and dressing up the infant.
- Night time parenting should be encourage; this include sleeping on the same bed with the child or sleeping in the same room with the child and a swift response when need be during the night. When bed-sharing with the infant, parent must be very careful so as not to sleep over the infant. As at now, the American Academy of Pediatrics advice strongly again sleeping on the same bed with the infant because it increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
- Parent should provide constant love and care, doing this will foster the bonding between the parent and the infant.
- The practice of positive discipline is highly encouraged; Even the youngest of babies should be guided, and redirect to model positive behaviour. Caregivers should also ensure that they understand what inappropriate behaviour about a child is trying to communicate to them, and find better solution by working together with the child to understand how this need can be meant rather than spanking or trying to make the child obey their set of rules. [Read; Positive Parenting that Helps Spare the Rod]
- Parent should try to balance personal and family life; Parents are encouraged to create a support network, live a healthy lifestyle, and prevent parenting burn-out.
Attachment parenting researchers found out that, attachment parenting raise children have love stress level; cry less often and feel more bonded to the people who look after them and even showing higher level of understanding.
