Thanks for posting this, David. 

I think it is about breastfeeding, though.  Aside from the obvious - that
milk production is almost always a casualty of sleep training - the nursing
relationship (inherently stable, responsive and protective when allowed to
unfold naturally) is the basis for optimum physical and emotional
development.  

The more deeply parents understand this, the less susceptible they will be
to misinformation (keeping my fingers crossed, anyway).  

In the review of 'sleep training' literature I mentioned earlier, the
authors noted, "Developmentally-based empirical research on the
physiological or psychological effects of unmodulated crying before sleep
could NOT be found (Gordon, Hill 2008). Parents are nevertheless reassured
by experts that they are not injuring the infant, but are instead promoting
their health by encouraging proper sleep habits (France, Henderson, &
Hudson, 1996)."

There's not nearly enough evidence (because who will pay for the research,
the babies?) about the links between stress in infancy and life-long health
outcomes, so I was very happy to receive (from a fellow Lactneter who
prefers to remain anonymous) this 2011 Pediatric article:  Early Childhood
Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating
Developmental Science into Lifelong Health
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/1/e224.full.html 

Some quotes from the above paper:

In contrast to positive or tolerable stress, toxic stress is defined as the
excessive or prolonged activation of the physiologic stress response systems
in the absence of the buffering protection afforded by stable, responsive
relationships.  Within the ongoing interplay among assets for health and
risks for illness, toxic stress early in life plays a critical role by
disrupting brain circuitry and other important regulatory systems in ways
that continue to influence physiology, behavior, and health DECADES later.

...the prevention of long-term, adverse consequences is best achieved by the
buffering protection afforded by stable, responsive relationships that help
children develop a sense of safety, thereby facilitating the restoration of
their stress response systems to baseline.

An ecobiodevelopmental (EBD) approach recognizes that it is not adversity
alone that predicts poor outcomes. It is the absence or insufficiency of
protective relationships that reinforce healthy adaptations to stress,
which, in the presence of significant adversity, leads to disruptive
physiologic responses (i.e., toxic stress) that produce “biological
memories” that increase the risk of health-threatening behaviors and frank
disease later in life.

Ingrid 

Ingrid Tilstra
La Leche League Canada Leader
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant

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