Ensuring the health of a new baby includes breast feeding, sharing a bed, and caring contact

• Whether you believe your infant is a blank slate to be inscribed or a complete divine being from the start, that little bundle of joy you've created requires a lot of responsibility from you.
• Holistic health practitioners have some suggestions that won't be in the conventional baby care brochures.
• Breast Is Best Mothers are still battling disapproving glances and verbal reprimands when breastfeeding in public, but even conventional medical authorities now encourage what nature intended.
• That's because breast milk is loaded with exactly the nutrition a human infant needs and provides antibodies that are a baby's surrogate immune system for about the first half year of life.
• Not every mother finds breastfeeding easy or relaxing, which is why a specialty called "lactation consultation" has appeared, and why La Leche League sponsors weekly support groups in several communities (those gatherings also aid women and families in many other aspects of parenthood).
• The caveat with breastfeeding, of course, is that mother's milk delivers potentially harmful substances like alcohol, medications, food additives, pesticides, inhaled toxic residues, heavy metals, and more---whatever the mother has been exposed to.
• For example, neurological damage has been documented in children exposed to heavy metals or PCBs through breastfeeding (or in utero).
• Naturopathic doctor Tom Francescott (Dr. Tom) in Rhinebeck finds many manifestations of allergy in his young patents.
• Dr. Tom raves about cod liver oil to boost immunity, aid in digestion, and provide essential omega 3 oils.
• Cosleeping Cosleeping is the ancient practice that other mammals do: sleeping with their young.
• Also called "the family bed" because it can include dad and maybe some other kids, the practice is a sleep-saver for parents who otherwise would be getting out of bed to tend to an infant's around-the-clock needs.