Hallelujah to the anti-consumerism voices out there! When I used to each the
baby-care classes at the hospital, I would make a big point of telling the
parents that they didn't need that stuff, that lots of it was actually not
healthy for babies, and pointing out how *easy* it is to sell unecessary
stuff to new parents. You know, we ALL want to "good parents", and if we're
getting the message everywhere that good parents "need" to have tons of junk
and "products", it comes as a real shock to them when they hear that they
don't need the powder, the wipes, the gizmos, the gadgets. Seems 100%
obvious to me, but I think that it comes as new thought to a lot of young
parents. Especially the ones who haven't had the benefit of living through
the hippie years, when at least the idea was drifting around that maybe we
didn't really need all this goofy stuff.
Seems to be the strongest in the lowest-income families, too;
understandable - they want to be able to give their babies the stuff they
think "everybody else" has - but it breaks my heart to see folks with
nothing buying huge, useless toys for their babies. On peds, I once was
working with a family that had absolutely nothing, not even bus fare for the
mom to go back & forth to the hospital to be with her little boy who had
pulled a pan of boiling water down off the stove in their trailer on himself
and was covered with horrendous burns. They were waiting for their welfare
checks to start coming (had just moved here from another state) - no clothes
for the kids, no shoes, not a book in the house, nothin'; when the check
finally came, what did they buy? A carton of cigarettes and a $65. stuffed
animal for the baby. It just broke my heart! By the time the little guy was
ready to go home, they still had no appropriate clothes or shoes for him,
and their money was gone again. Just one of the saddest things I've ever
seen...
Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY
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