"Let's bring back the "old-fashioned" pram style carriage and WALK the baby
OUTSIDE in the sunshine everyday that's over 20 degrees! And when the temps
reach 50 degrees, let's park the carriage in the yard after the walk, and
let baby nap in the sunshine while mom enjoys the sunshine and a few
moments of peace and quiet!"

Three cheers, Nancy! Did you older lactnetters ever think you'd see the day
when you had to teach new mothers to walk & "air" their babies this way? I
always just took it for granted (well, especially since I didn't have a car
and so there wasn't much choice!), and was astounded when I started teaching
baby care classes at the hospital that this was a new idea to today's young
parents. "But won't they be cold?" (Well, don't *you* bundle up when you go
outdoors on a chilly day? No one's proposing you dangle your baby naked from
the clothesline or anything!) "Even here in Ithaca?" (a place known for its
lousy weather) *Especially* here in Ithaca - you'd all go nuts if you waited
for perfect weather to take your baby outside! And yet these same parents
who were worried about taking their babies outside for a walk think nothing
of dragging this poor infant & its toddler sibs to the wretched mall, which
is unbearably hot, noisy, crowded, germy, and altogether unwholesome! Go
figure!

Not to mention that walking the baby is the world's best way to show it off,
and gain those little soul-nourishing moments of admiration for the miracle
you've produced. I took my babes out in all kinds of neighborhoods and
cities, and never once did I receive anything except encouraging words from
total strangers - grandmas & grandpas, kids, scary-looking punks, snotty
neighbors who wouldn't have given me the time of day without the babies,
homeless street people, shopkeepers, mentally ill people, you name it.
Everybody loves to see a baby. And, for me, at least, that engagement
between my family and the wider community right from the very first was a
very important part of raising them as involved, caring, kind citizens.

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY
(feeling very proud of my kids today: my son graduating from college this
month just got a job doing what he loves with a "socially responsible"
multimedia company, one of my daughters will be going to Antioch College
with a *huge* community service scholarship and plans to "save the world",
and the other daughter is headed to work in Boston in the AmeriCorps
program, also doing service work! And all because I walked them around the
neighborhood in their big old-fashioned baby buggy!)

             ***********************************************
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