Agree agree agree, Ingrid--thanks for posting!

I would also like to point Lactnetters to more resources by Jack
Shonkoff and his team at Harvard:
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/

I came across these while developing a presentation on sleep for our
LLL Leader's Retreat (NY State) and was almost overwhelmed by the
implications for what we do by supporting breastfeeding and by
advocating for so-called alternative practices like cosleeping and
babywearing.  For example, one of the position papers stated that
infants can experience fear as early as 7-8 months!!

While I don't think that cry-it-out necessarily produces toxic
stress--it's not on the level of abuse or neglect or the adverse
effects talked about in the position paper in Pediatrics, for me the
take away is that we just don't know the impact of sleep training.
Sure, some babies will be fine.  Some babies will seem fine but will
have a toxic stress reaction.  From the outside, they will look the
same.   The risk is just not worth taking.  It's not a harmless
intervention.

Annie Frisbie, LLLL, MA, IBCLC
Queens, New York City


> Date:    Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:35:26 -0800
> From:    Ingrid <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Toxic stress of Early Childhood
>
> 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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