Blog Posts 1–5, based on the United States of America Department of the Army Field Manual: Holistic Healing and Fitness, describe what really matters for your child’s sleep. If sleep is an important enough topic for national defense than surely sleep should be considered a serious topic for parenting!
Blog Posts 1–5, based on the United States of America Department of the Army Field Manual: Holistic Healing and Fitness, describe what really matters for your child’s sleep. If sleep is an important enough topic for national defense than surely sleep should be considered a serious topic for parenting!
Inexperience, for first-time parents, naturally creates some anxiety about how to best raise your child. Every imaginable opinion is available online to support widely divergent points of view. Many sites create false hopes to get you to buy their product and services. Their marketing preys on your anxiety. Some sleep-deprived parents become desperate. Even though some widely once-popular products and programs have been shown to be useless or dangerous, some of these products and programs are still available!
Caveat emptor (Let the Buyer Beware) is a well-known phrase, but parents also need to beware of false claims regarding rearing children. Myths (Blog Posts 36 and 37), fads (Blog Post 143), and fake news (146 and 147) are a sad part of the history of parenting. Here is a brief cautionary history to give you some perspective on fake promises.
“One of the most tenacious myths in parenting is the so-called Mozart effect, which says that listening to music by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can increase a child’s intelligence. The idea has been promoted by advocates for arts education and by retailers who sell special recordings of Mozart’s works for infants and toddlers. Relax. There is no scientific evidence that listening to Mozart improves children’s cognitive abilities. The whole idea comes from a small study done in 1993, which found that college students who listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K 448) showed modest improvement in a test of spatial reasoning. This finding was later stretched into something more extravagant by the musician and entrepreneur Don Campbell, who in 1997 published the best seller The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. Campbell’s claims about the miraculous powers of Mozart’s music were repeated endlessly in the media and fueled a craze for Mozart-based enrichment activities. In 1998, for example, the governor of Georgia requested funds to send classical-music CDs to all parents of newborns in the state. Since then, scientists have examined the claim that Mozart boosts intelligence and found no evidence for it. The original experiment with college students was reviewed in 1999, and the increase in the students’ spatial skills was found to be negligible.” Britannica.com (Click here to open)
There is a long history of marketing products to parents without proper regard to safety and no regard for effectiveness. Here is an example.
Guide to Recalled Infant Inclined Sleepers, Nappers, and Loungers
“Soon after the Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play Sleeper was introduced in 2009 and marketed as a safe and soothing place for babies to sleep, the product quickly became popular among new parents.
But recent research, including an ongoing investigation by Consumer Reports, has found that all inclined sleepers increase the risk of suffocation. That’s because the sleepers, which position infants at an angle between 10 and 30 degrees, can allow a baby’s head to slump forward, blocking airflow, and make it easier for a baby to roll over into the sleeper’s sidewalls or head rest, interfering with breathing. Since CR’s investigation, began in April 2019 several manufacturers have recalled more than 5 million infant inclined sleepers, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned caregivers not to use any inclined sleepers.” consumerreports.org (Click here to open) “This recall involves all Rock ‘n Play Sleepers. Consumers should immediately stop using the product and contact Fisher-Price for a refund or voucher. Since the 2009 product introduction, over 30 infant fatalities have occurred in Rock ‘n Play Sleepers, after the infants rolled over while unrestrained, or under other circumstances.” cpsc.gov (Click here to open)
