A message from Dr. Palmer:
Many
of the problems that today's parents face while raising their babies
are associated with the new parenting and feeding practices that have
encroached upon our culture over the last century. These practices
have been promoted for several reasons, mostly linked to industry
profits. (Colic,
for instance, is far more common in the US than in many other parts
of the world. It is generally treated with drugs or lactose-free formula,
and with little success.)
Few
will tell you the research findings and the feeding and parenting
solutions that work. Ear infections are also more pervasive today.
Science shows that cow's milk proteins and other proteins in formula
or mother's diet are the chief causes, and that antibiotics, the common
treatment, statistically create more problems than solutions. Diabetes,
bowel disease, arthritis, and cancers, on the rise in both children
and adults, are also strongly linked to infant feeding choices.
In
the psychological realm, parents have been encouraged to ignore their
babies' cries and their own very strong urges to respond, but I have
found no sound research to support any long-term benefits of this
kind of detached parenting. In fact, a mountain of psychology studies
suggest that responsive parenting is best.
Email Dr. Palmer
at: LFPalmer@BabyReference.com.
She'd love to hear from you.
Infant Nutrition and Healthy
Parenting Speaker for Lactation Consultants, Midwives and Natural Family Audiences
Dr. Palmer is available
to speak by invitation.
Palmer has these very current two-hour PowerPoint presentations available:
The Chemistry of Attachment
When un-hampered by imposed fears of spoiling or hindering maturation,
the biochemical interplays of frequent, close contact between parent and
child create positive life-long brain alterations in all who participate.
Linda Palmer will discuss the various hormonal and neuronal involvements in creating a parent and in parent-infant interactions leading to bonding. She will present the varied lifelong repercussions of different levels of attachment or detachment experienced during infancy in reaction to parenting behaviors. The interplay of breastmilk, breastfeeding, and bottle nursing in these processes will be portrayed.
Beyond Breastmilk
Linda Palmer discusses the health and nutritional aspects of starting
solid foods and developing positive lifetime eating habits in children.
Common infant feeding information is often based more on dairy, formula
& baby food industry advice and does not encompass the wide spectrum
of the healthiest options.
Palmer explores the optimal introduction of solids in terms of age and kind and presents archeological studies of weaning. The ramifications of early supplementation in breastfed infants and the nutrition and potential consequences of homemade formulas, goat's milk, cow’s milk, raw milk and soy will be presented, along with the evidence behind food allergies in breastfeeding babies and the truth about calcium needs in children.
Palmer reviews the evidence in terms of timing of solids, covering calorie, protein, iron, zinc, fatty acid needs and more, and fnds no evidence of a need to begin any kind of supplementation to the average exclusive breastmilk diet in the first year of life after term birth, and beyond. She contents that solid food introduction for formula-fed babies is a very different situation than that for breastfed children and presents these variations.
SOME PAST 1 HOUR LECTURES:
Small Bodies
and Big Industry
Dr. Palmer will discuss health and political issues involving formula supplementation, dairy and soy consumption
and commercial baby food. Surprising findings about iron, calcium,
vitamin D, fluoride supplementation, bond development and infant caries will be presented.
Considering Healthy
Parenting Concepts
Dr. Palmer will discuss how and why we have drifted away from many natural
and healthy child care practices, and the movement to return to providing
healthier childhoods for optimal adult outcomes, both emotionally and physically.
Considering the
Immature Immune System
The unique fetal and infant immune systems
will be discussed in terms of development, nutrition, challenges, common food intolerances, common
drug usages, and hygiene concepts.
When it Has to be Formula
Linda Palmer consults regularly in infant nutrition and bonding and receives numerous pleas from mothers who, due to breast surgeries, chemotherapy needs, and other physiological abnormalities are simply unable to provide adequate breastmilk to their babies. So many mothers are simply told to feed commercial formula and are given no more information about the health consequences of various choices available and possible means to improve upon standard artificial feeding. Many report the topic to be taboo for their consultants and outside the scope of most pediatricians. Palmer provides information about alternative feeding methods and means of optimizing the health, development and bonding potentials of artificially fed babies. Beyond finding donor breastmilk for the early weeks, there are ways of improving upon a formula supplemented or total standard infant formula diet for babies.
Questions and Requests to LFPalmer@BabyReference.com
With
the birth of Dr. Palmer's son in 1995, she was confronted with his
severe health complications and astounded by the extreme lack of accurate
or helpful information from doctors or books. Her usual passion for
research turned toward infant health and parenting. Her extensive
reviews of science and medical research revealed huge conflicts between
what is found scientifically and what is standard protocol in pediatric
offices. Her research in this area led to writing Baby Matters.