With the "popularity" of brain growth these days, anything that someone is
trying to sell us, will stimulate brain growth in our children.

When I had my first colicky baby, who seldom slept, I was comforted by
hearing that colicky babies grow up smarter because "she can't learn when
she is asleep."  And she seemed proved that to be true.

In our local high school (which is tooooo achievement oriented for my
tastes) the Advanced Math teacher, who works with math geniuses, says that
he did a study and found that a very high percentage of these math whizzes
were colicky babies who slept little.

Now, I don't believe that math strength is the only measure of
intelligence; it is just the easiest to measure. But if these young
mathematicians had had the "rotating bed" and slept 14 hours a day, would
their little brains perhaps have been sloshed or "dizzied" into mediocrity?

My second colicky baby (who stopped crying with my elimination of dairy)
didn't sleep much either, even after she stopped having intestinal
cramping.  And her "academic measures" of intelligence were out of sight.

Now, I'm not saying that I wouldn't have traded a few points on the SATs
for a little more sleep for their mother. Thanks to LLL, I knew that I got
the babies that I got, and learned to appreciate their uniqueness and let
them grow as *they* knew how. And what I admire most about them is not
their measurable intellect, but their compassion, friendliness, inner
peace, sense of humor, sense of security, and an unshakable connection with
other humans on the planet.

Of course, I know plenty of very bright people who slept a lot as infants
and who went on to learn all that they needed to know, growing into wisdom.
 One doesn't have to challenge all of the neuro connections within the
first few years of life. Learning is for a lifetime and emotional,
psycho-social, and spiritual "intelligence" are as important as measurable
mental intelligence.

And now that I'm reading all about how to keep my brain healthy in my
"mature" years, everything says "stimulation, puzzles, new experiences,
reading challenging books, playing chess, and other mental calisthenics."
Not one article is saying rock yourself into a 14 hour sleep each day for
optimal brain maintenance.

*WE* know how to optimize our infants brain development, along with the
other aspects of human development, and it is not with another mother
substitute and womb sounds from "somebody's womb". It's sad that we
Americans are so averse to closeness that we will grab at anything that
separates us from our children. And we will believe the false claims that
promote separateness, especially if it is endorsed by "TV and other media
and magazines." Another case of our children participating in an experiment.

How far would they have gotten if their promotions had been for "The
Ultimate Separator. Hold your baby as little as possible. None of this
'touchy-feely' stuff. Let that little brain grow, while you go about your
life of important activities and your baby gets a solid lesson in isolation."

I guess the creators of this gadget, and its "effective" promotion, were
colicky babies whose brains were developed but whose human morality is up
for sale.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee
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