Evolved Nest Explained: Breastfeeding
Darcia Narvaez, PhD, and Mary Tarsha present one of the Evolved Nest's nine components: breastfeeding. Read about the Evolved Nest on Kindred: https://www.kindredmedia.org/the-evolved-nest/ Find more about the Evolved Nest: https://evolvednest.org/evolved-nest-components The Evolved Nest is a breakthrough concept that integrates findings across fields that bear on child development, child raising and adult behavior. The Evolved Nest promotes optimal health and wellbeing, cooperation, and receptive and sociomoral intelligences. Societal moves away from providing the Evolved Nest have contributed to the ill being and dysregulation we see in one another and society. Learn how to nest your children and re-nest yourself. Breastfeeding is one of nine components of the Evolved Nest. ON-REQUEST BREASTFEEDING - occurs for several years. What to do: · Provide the breast whenever the baby indicates rooting and other signals of need for the breast. This is part of responsive parenting described above. · Don’t make the baby wait or stress hormones start to flow. · Breastfeed for at least a year if not 4 or 5 as in our species-normal societies. Why? Breastfeeding frequency. Mammalian milk is species specific for each of the over 4,000 mammalian species (AAP, 2005). Human milk is of the thin, rather than thick, variety, which is related to frequent ingestion or at least suckling (on average every 20 minutes for infants as recorded by anthropologists; see Hewlett & Lamb, 2005; Konner & Worthman, 1980). Breastfeeding length. In the ancestral context, breastfeeding took place on average from 2-5 years (weaning at age 4 on average; Konner, 2005; 2010). These patterns are still evident in aboriginal populations little influenced by outside cultures. According to Dettwyler’s (1995) review (see table 3) humans should be breastfeeding much longer than they are, based on what other primates do in relation to offspring maturation schedule. The end of the range, age 6-7, is when the immune system reaches adult levels and much of the brain is completed (Parham, 2004). Human mothers, who provided immunity through the placenta, continue to provide immunity after birth, first with colostrum immediately after birth and thereafter with breast milk. Although infants have gastric enzymes for digesting their mother’s colostrum and milk, digestive enzymes for other foods do not develop for several months. Breast milk abounds with infection fighting agents that foster immune and digestive health in the young child. Specific to the environment in which the mother and infant find themselves, mammalian milk produces antibodies for various infective agents (e.g., Slusser & Powers, 1997).
Darcia Narvaez, PhD, and Mary Tarsha present one of the Evolved Nest's nine components: breastfeeding. Read about the Evolved Nest on Kindred: https://www.kindredmedia.org/the-evolved-nest/ Find more about the Evolved Nest: https://evolvednest.org/evolved-nest-components The Evolved Nest is a breakthrough concept that integrates findings across fields that bear on child development, child raising and adult behavior. The Evolved Nest promotes optimal health and wellbeing, cooperation, and receptive and sociomoral intelligences. Societal moves away from providing the Evolved Nest have contributed to the ill being and dysregulation we see in one another and society. Learn how to nest your children and re-nest yourself. Breastfeeding is one of nine components of the Evolved Nest. ON-REQUEST BREASTFEEDING - occurs for several years. What to do: · Provide the breast whenever the baby indicates rooting and other signals of need for the breast. This is part of responsive parenting described above. · Don’t make the baby wait or stress hormones start to flow. · Breastfeed for at least a year if not 4 or 5 as in our species-normal societies. Why? Breastfeeding frequency. Mammalian milk is species specific for each of the over 4,000 mammalian species (AAP, 2005). Human milk is of the thin, rather than thick, variety, which is related to frequent ingestion or at least suckling (on average every 20 minutes for infants as recorded by anthropologists; see Hewlett & Lamb, 2005; Konner & Worthman, 1980). Breastfeeding length. In the ancestral context, breastfeeding took place on average from 2-5 years (weaning at age 4 on average; Konner, 2005; 2010). These patterns are still evident in aboriginal populations little influenced by outside cultures. According to Dettwyler’s (1995) review (see table 3) humans should be breastfeeding much longer than they are, based on what other primates do in relation to offspring maturation schedule. The end of the range, age 6-7, is when the immune system reaches adult levels and much of the brain is completed (Parham, 2004). Human mothers, who provided immunity through the placenta, continue to provide immunity after birth, first with colostrum immediately after birth and thereafter with breast milk. Although infants have gastric enzymes for digesting their mother’s colostrum and milk, digestive enzymes for other foods do not develop for several months. Breast milk abounds with infection fighting agents that foster immune and digestive health in the young child. Specific to the environment in which the mother and infant find themselves, mammalian milk produces antibodies for various infective agents (e.g., Slusser & Powers, 1997).