according to this book i've been reading 'our babies, ourselves' (by m f small) 90% of children sleep with at least one other adult, over 8% of babies sleep with other children and less than 2% of babies in the world tonight will sleep in a room alone.
less than 2%!! and it's not just the poor families that can only afford a one room house. so it's clearly not the common consensus that babies should sleep alone. and from a quick google search there seems to be a wealth of new research showing that it's actually not good for babies to sleep alone.
i look back at the early settlers and their crazy logic and i say 'bringing foxes to australia!! what were you thinking??!!'
i wonder if our grandkids will look back and say to us 'forcing babies to sleep alone!! what were you thinking??!!'
and the average age for weaning? my little bubble of 'common sense' would tell me 12 months is plenty, but the global 'common sense' turns out to be around 4 years.
so where do we get our crazy common sense ideas from anyway? fill me in if you find out.
6 comments:
Interesting, the weaning thing was on the radio today, about how Aussies wean their kids way to young and other cultures keep the kids feed for a lot longer.
yeah, everyone i speak to about it goes, 'ooo, breast feeding kids that can walk! that's a bit strange.' i wonder if it's a notion that was introduced by formula companies in the 60's and is still hanging around.
we've been taught at uni, that if we desire to develop a quality of mind (that is one that doesn't not simply accept the status quo) we need to approach the subject considering the...
1. historical context (where did the subject come from, how did it begin)
2. cultural context (how do the traditions, roles and valuesof the culture inform the subject)
3. structural context (how do the structural powers, organisations interpret and reinforce the common sense idea about the subject)
recognising the dominant discourse (status quo) is controlled in most instances by the conservative ruling powers (political, religious, etc), it makes sense that any alternatives will be held in low regard by a majority of society, and questioned as unnatural, dysfunctional, rebellious etc.
sound familiar??? ;-)
should be "doesn't" or "does not" - not "doesn't not"
just finished an exam - sorry about typo's
An interesting study in how media makes culture could have been today on Hamish and Andy. They had a little drama on children old enough to speak talking about their desire to 'feed' from mummy.
Full on mocking the breast feeding of older kids.
sounds funny... would have loved to see it. i guess culture makes media as much as media makes culture. they only put on what they think will watch.
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