If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
Shame
If a mother drinks a lot of alcohol during her pregnancy, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome may occur and cause brain damage in her child.
If a mother feeds her baby goat’s milk, folate deficiency may occur and cause brain damage in her child.
Why is it sometimes called ‘mother shaming’ when a professional points out that a mother’s life style is associated with parental behaviors regarding unhealthy infant sleep, (for example, skipping naps or late bedtimes) and she is harming her child?
Please post your responses in the Comments section.
Good question! I often feel bad for some of my friends’ kids because they are obviously chronically overtired and suffering because of it. But I wouldn’t dare tell them they aren’t doing the right thing for their kids since the “right thing” in parenting is often subjective and that would offend them that I’m “judging” their parenting. Maybe that’s why. I usually just find a way to lovingly tell them about how I discovered that early bed time is the KEY to good sleep!
I think you have discovered something.
Please look at Blog Post 201. “THERE IS NO MEDICAL TERM FOR ‘SLEEP DEFICIENCY’. Instead, phrases such as sleep-deprivation, drowsiness, sleepiness, or feeling tired are used to describe the brain fog from insufficient or impaired sleep that diminishes the sensation of alertness. Insomnia is the term used to describe difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, not lack of sleep. Hyposomnia describes short sleep duration. Perhaps there is no specific name for sleep deficiency because we have no easy objective way of measuring it as we do for many of the other items listed under ‘Deficiencies’.”
The lack of objective measurements means that instead of facts about how drowsiness impairs children, parents’ subjective views blinds them to the harm of sleep deficiency in their children. This is complicated by their own subjective blindness to their own sleepiness (Blog Post 13).
Thank you!
Hmm that’s very interesting! I remember you touched on cortisol levels in your book but can’t remember exactly what it was. I wonder if there could be a way to objectively identify sleep-deficiency using cortisol levels?
I think for a lot of parents that don’t understand it’s their own fault that their child is chronically sleep deprived is because they can blame it on other factors. There are too many variables. I know some parents who blame “genetics”. Some who are themselves chronically sleep-deprived and therefore think it’s normal. Some who are on serious medications and put their kids on them too that they blame. Some whose [adopted] kids were exposed to serious recreational drugs while in the womb so they blame that.
Regardless, I really hope that soon there will be a big movement in the parenting/health world of prioritizing sleep for its health/neurological benefits!