ANTHROPOLOGIST KATHY DETTWYLER GIVES US RECOMMENDATIONS ON PARENTING

We arrive at the fourth and final installment of this extensive interview with anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler, a professor at the University of Delaware and a specialist in anthropology of breastfeeding and parenting. He explained to us that the natural duration of human breastfeeding is between 2 and a half years and 7 years and there is no scientific evidence that letting the child wean at any time will harm him.

In this delivery we will Talk to Professor Dettwyler about parenting and feeding and we are also going to ask you to recommend the most interesting books for moms.

What book would you advise reading to a future mom?

The "Guide of the Conscious Woman for a Better Birth" by Henci Goer (edit. Ob Stare, 2008)

And after delivery?

The most recent edition of the book edited by La Leche League Internacional, "The feminine art of breastfeeding". The current edition was published in 2010.

What can a mother do if, for any reason, she cannot breastfeed, but wants to offer all the bond and emotional aspects of breastfeeding?

This is an interesting question, one in which I would like more people to reflect. There are many things a mother can do, including:

To offer the baby all the bond and emotional contact of breastfeeding when taking a bottle, the mother would always have to keep her baby in her arms, and look at him, talk to him, interact with him and hug him, during the shot

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Feed the baby more often, with smaller but more frequent amounts than are usually recommended with bottle-fed babies, in order to approximate the interaction of a breastfed baby.
Keep the baby in skin-to-skin contact as long as possible, not only during the shots, but also at other times.
Hold in your arms and hug the baby when he simply wants to suck his mother's pacifier or finger, even when they aren't hungry. This will mimic the comfort offered by breastfeeding during the day to most breastfed babies. I hate seeing one-year-old babies staggering around with a pacifier in their mouths.
Never support the bottle, or hold it while watching TV or reading a book or talking to someone else. Although breastfeeding mothers often do other things while breastfeeding, including writing books or teaching, it will help the mother to interact better with her bottle-fed baby if she always takes time to focus only on the baby during the shots. . If other people want to "help" with the baby, they can do laundry or do the dishes or cook or clean the bathroom.

What kind of diet could humanity have followed before there was agriculture?

Before the Neolithic Revolution, the beginning of the domestication of plants and animals, all humans lived as hunters and gatherers, and, of course, some still do.

The diet of hunters and gatherers tends to include a much wider variety of different plant and animal resources over the course of the day or week than most modern humans eat today, and is generally more adequate since All views.

Meat from large animals is not always available, but when it is, it tends to be much leaner than meat obtained from commercially raised domestic animals.

Individuals who are hunters and gatherers are also much more physically active than sedentary farmers and shepherds or people who live in industrial and post-industrial societies.

Was this diet healthier or were there nutritional deficiencies even when there were no periods of shortage?

In general, the diet in the Paleolithic was much healthier.

He had little or no nutritional deficiency because of the wide variety of foods consumed. There were no preservatives or artificial colors or flavors, there were no hormones or antibiotics added.

The food was not processed too much. It was simply cut, crushed, cooked or roasted on the coals; These were the only options to process food. And there were few sources of sugar, only honey and some fruits.

What can we learn from it in terms of feeding our children?

Well, it is always a good idea to provide children with a wide variety of different foods daily, and avoid excessively processed food, one that has many artificial ingredients and one that is very elaborate or has a lot of industrial preparation.

I do not know if the prevention of addiction to sweets has much result, but I would suggest that parents limit the amount of sugar ingested by children, especially drinks. So I would say no to soda and fruit juices. And I am also very much against raisins, they are so full of sugar that it sticks to children's teeth!

Is there a book that you recommend to understand weaning and in general the upbringing in other cultures and civilizations not industrialized?

I would say that in the whole world there is simply a huge cultural variation from all points of view of child rearing. An excellent book to give an idea of this is "A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies" by Judy DeLoache and Alma Gottlieb (2000).

This ends Babies' interview and more to anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler. Actually, when I finish an interview I always feel a wonderful feeling, that of gratitude for the time that an expert has dedicated to us. Today is especially intense, I have learned a lot and above all, I hope from the heart that this work can help many families find the freedom to raise their children as they wish. Thank you Kathy, for your work and your dedication.