Most Passionate About??? - Page 3

[JZDmama]

No CIO and breastfeeding on demand/extended nursing. I think they kinda go hand in hand though. Mama's milk always takes the tears away.

[minkajane]

That's a tough one. I think what I'm most passionate about first and foremost is babies' physical health, especially in terms of things that are irreversable (elective C-sections or inductions, circumcision, breastfeeding, early solids, junk food, physical abuse). Next is babies' emotional health (CIO, cosleeping, GD, bonding).

The thing I get most fired up about is circumcision. NO ONE has the right to remove a healthy piece of a baby's genitals! It drives me batty when someone insists that it's just my OPINION that there are no health benefits to circ. Uh, NO, the AAP, WHO, CAP, and everybody else who matters says it too. Why do people defend it so strongly? More importantly, WHY IS IT STILL LEGAL????

Sorry, rant over.

The other thing I get really fired up about is breastfeeding. It makes me SO sad when moms won't even try ONCE to breastfeed. And it's seen as no big deal! Nurses just shrug and hand them a bottle of formula. People are so focused on not making FF moms feel guilty that they refuse to encourage anyone to breastfeed.

[Mountaingirl3]

I'm so passionate about all these things when I think of the actual individual babies/children/people involved. In the abstract, something like breastfeeding vs formula may seem like just a choice, but when I think of an actual new, tiny baby rooting for his mother's breast and never finding it---AAAAAH, it slays me.

Same with CIO or circ. Before I had kids, I could have rationalized those, but now that I know the absolute goodness, trust and fragility of a baby, those things break my heart.

For lucky kids in developed countries, I have to say GD is #1 because I think it leads to an overall attitude of respect. It helps you realize that instead of striving for obedience or molding your child, you can discover who they are, gain their trust and cooporation, help them develop emotional intelligence etc.

-----Warning, discussion of kids unlucky enough to be poor------













For kids in the third world, I'm horrified by much more basic things like how it must feel as a mother to be unable to feed your children. Or how I would feel if my child was sick and I couldn't afford a doctor. The inequity between countries where we live, and places where kids die of totally treatable diseases gets me pretty worked up.

Sometimes I wonder if I took a little of my outrage at non-AP parenting and put it towards outrage at the unbelievable suffering of children in Rwanda or Haiti or Peru, it could make a difference. (Just read a book called Mountains Beyond Mountains about a doc. in Haiti.) Sorry if hijacking.

[witchbaby]

circ and breastfeeding
kids should get to keep all their healthy body parts and get the food that is specifically made for them. it's only their right.

[Sharlla]

I'd say no CIO, GD, and no circ are the big ones for me.

[kayjayjay]

I was recently talking to a mama with a 5 week old babe, and as we were talking she changed his (disposable) diaper. I was so overjoyed to see that he was intact that I was still smiling even when she pulled out a bottle and started to feed him.

So I guess my answer is no circ. Although the others are important as well.

[talk de jour]

Breastfeeding and no CIO.

No circ is a close second.

[kamilla626]

No CIO / GD / Responding to children's needs (not just what we think their needs are).

They all sort of stem from the same thing.

[suprgrl]

I'd have to say it is a tie between no circ and no cio. Those are outright abusive to a child's physical and emotional self.

There are so many other issues I also feel strongly about, but those top the list.

Ronna

[CuriousLion]

As someone else said...I'm just passionate about this stuff in general. But if I had to pick one I'd say circ. I see it as a disgusting violent act that can never be un-done. I do believe in bf'ing and and all these other things...but I wasn't bf and I'm pretty healthy. Not advocating here! Just saying...breastfeeding is a better choice, but a ff baby is still being fed. As for things like cio and gd...I guess I feel like emotional wounds can be healed. Hopefully they won't be inflicted in the first place, but I don't see it as such permanent damage as physically cutting off a part of a child. I would certainly never let my son cio or anything like that, but I think circing him would be worse. With circ...they're doing something that can never be reversed...the child is physically damaged forever. (I know men can "restore" but it's not the same) I get so sick thinking that it was done to DH. I tend to think...emotional wounds can be healed (maybe because I've had my own emotional wounds and worked on them a lot), but no one can ever give a male his foreskin back. My mother inflicted emotional wounds on me and I can heal those...if she'd allowed someone to cut off a part of me...I could never get that back. So, I guess I just see it as the most irreversable thing and therefore I would be more active in advocating against that.

[Kristine233]

Babywearing for sure!! I live, breath and sleep slings! its truely an addiction because I totally believe and have seen the benefts from it.

[nonconformnmom]

Natural, drug-free births. Breastfeeding. Those are my two biggest. I'm also particularly passionate about shielding children from commercialism and marketing to children - so excessive tv for children is a passion point for me. Also, parents feeding junk food to young children really gets my goat.

[Drummer's Wife]

Breastfeeding and Circumcision. I strongly believe that every baby deserves to be breastfed and every little boy should be allowed to keep his foreskin

[Attached Mama]

I guess first would be no circumcision because it is irreversible and extremely painful and cruel.
Close second - breastfeeding and no CIO and gentle discipline.
AFter that it's hard to put an order to it but I"m passionate about not eating animals and eating organic, about natural living - cloth diapers, no chemicals etc. and about sleeping with or right next to baby.

[Collin'sMama]

Thank you all for the responses!

After listening to alot of your stories and knowlege on these boards, I am so ashamed of myself.
I circumcised my son and didn't breastfeed "just because". I was on Paxil and my doctor said no one was really sure yet if it hurt the baby so I just took it at that and didn't think twice about it.
I know it is NO excuse, but I was just so naive. I knew nothing about babies and although I read everything I could about pregnancy, birth and babies during my pregnancy- I only read the mainstream things. So I thought I knew so much and now I am just apalled at how people like me, young women brought up in a mainstream household, may never have the chance to find the information I have.
It wasn't until my son was two months old and I went to the library to get baby books b/c I needed to get out of the house that I picked up the book "Attachment Parenting" by Katie Allison Granju that I caught my first glimpse of how different things could (and SHOULD!) be. It made so much sense to me. I stopped listening to my mother, my MIL, and everyone I knew when they told me to put my baby in his crib or to let him fuss. I started wearing him....
and I have slowly learned more as I went along. How I wish I would have known this all sooner though! I only just learned a month ago that I could have started breastfeeding him even though I hadn't at first. I found this site about a month ago too and am ecstatic. I have so much to learn.
Yet.....what do I do about the things I have done that I can't take back??? (circumcision, no breast feeding, not cosleeping until 2+ months)
It kills me.......

[because]

"When you know better, you do better." --Maya Angelou

Please be kind to yourself, Mama. Your son is so lucky to have a mama who does these things NOW.

I'm sure every single one of us will learn somehting next week or next year or 10 years from now and regret not knowing it earlier. That's life, though. Live and learn, YK?

Don't beat yourself up for what you haven't done; love yourself what you have done and are doing every single day for that sweet boy of yours!

[Collin'sMama]

Thank you