Jennifer wrote,

"But, I think one of
the
reasons for this need to contrive "bonding" with dads is the typical
Western
habit of isolating babies from their parents at night. When dads spend 8

hours at night with the baby, their is plenty of "bonding" opportunity."

I'm going to refrain from saying too much about fathers feeling left out
from breastfeeding... I've said enough in previous posts.
One thing I do understand, though, is that fathers might not want to do
the "grunge" jobs of parenting while the mothers have the pleasure of
the cuddly, snuggly ones. When we talk at meetings about what fathers
can do, I encourage moms to think beyond "changing diapers" and talk
about the nice deep voice when a father sings, the strong arms for colic
holds and colic swings, and, especially, the "non-nursing chest".
With our twins, I would breastfeed one and keep him/her close, usually
latched on, beside me until the second woke up. Then the first one was
gently moved to her/his father's chest. Sometimes a sensitive baby had
to be walked or rocked to get back to sleep, but my husband (thank
goodness) considered that the effort was worthwhile in order to
accomodate the baby who was currently breastfeeding. Most times,
however, the baby just snuggled down into his/her father's skin.
With a singleton, this doesn't necessarily happen as naturally and
inevitably. It's certainly worth making the effort, though.
The other things fathers can be encouraged to do is to finger feed
solids when the baby is older and to play physically with their
toddlers. I don't know if it is nature or nurture, but my toddlers end
up spending lots of fun time with their fathers, and it seems that the
more they have been held and breastfed by their mother in their first
year, the more they enjoy playing with their father in their second
year.
Jo-Anne, who is spending too much time on the computer while the other
kids are playing with Carlos... but it's bedtime soon, and that means
seven in the bed (bedroom, anyway).

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html