Can I spoil my Baby - Can they manipulate me?

MS, RN, and IBCLC Corky Harvey reminds us that a baby cannot be spoiled
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Can I spoil my Baby - Can they manipulate me?

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- Parents today are so worried about whether or not they can spoil their baby. Nobody wants a whiny, manipulative kid. And so sometimes they don't provide babies with what they need early out because they're worried about what's gonna happen later. The old school thought on this is from 80 to 90 years ago, when the experts of the day were telling parents that if you responded to your babies, if you picked them up, if you held them, that you could actually create dependent, whiny, manipulative, insecure people. When the scientific evidence supports clearly that that indeed is not true, that the opposite is true. The more we hold, the more we touch, the more we respond, the more secure, the more independent, the healthier our babies are emotionally, physically, mentally. In truth, you absolutely cannot spoil a young baby. And that's demonstrated with a lot of evidence and research on brain development that the section of our brain that allows us to be manipulative, that allows us to strategize something, isn't even wired up at birth, and for quite a long time. Our brain develops from back to front, down up, in out. And the part that is able to manipulate is in the out front, which is not wired up for quite a long time, but could a two year old manipulate us? Of course. But by not giving a baby what he needs when he's three months old, it doesn't keep us from having to work with a two year old and he's not gonna have M&M's in the grocery store. It's a different thing.

BABY, Bonding and Communication

MS, RN, and IBCLC Corky Harvey reminds us that a baby cannot be spoiled

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Corky Harvey, MS, RN, IBCLC

Certified Lactation Consultant

Corky Harvey is a co-founder of the Pump Station & Nurtury™ - the first new parent resource center of its kind. She is a registered nurse with a master's degree in maternal/newborn Nursing, and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She teaches breastfeeding and baby care classes, facilitates the New Mother Breastfeeding Support Groups, and is a frequent guest lecturer. Corky has three grown children who were breastfed and she loves to claim that their intelligence is linked to this. Corky has two grandsons, Diego who nursed over two years, and 18-month-old Axel who is still breastfeeding. 

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