Baby Care is All About The “Three B”s’, Apparently

According to baby experts it’s all about the three B’s – breastfeeding, bed sharing and body contact. Ensure your child has these three elements for the first three years of their life and they will be happy and contented little people.

Hang on a minute – three years they say.

I’m not exactly sure who these baby ‘experts’ are, as this was a story originally spouted on the BBC breakfast news and I have commented before on just how poorly they seem to report on various issues these days.

All I can presume is these ‘experts’ do not have children of their own.

I don’t wish to write off this latest faddy theory too quickly. It contains elements which I think are far more preferable to the all to common perspective on parenthood these days, that children should in no way encumber your previous lifestyle and as soon as you can fling them in the back of your car and get on with your life as though the children are barely there, the better.

Being a parent is all about sacrifice and this latest theory is about sacrifice in the extreme. As a mother, to give up three years of your life to completely devote yourself to your child and to essentially be bound to them by a tight cord, or as the experts suggest – a baby carrier or sling to give them that third important ‘B’ – body contact – is a sacrifice indeed. But I have to say whilst it may be noble for parents to be prepared to show such devotion to their children, I would argue this three B’s theory is by no means practical or even possible.

To work through the list, breastfeeding is a vital step in the bonding process between mother and child, as well as the healthiest way you can choose to feed your baby. I would advocate any mother nursing their baby in this way for as long as their baby is happy to do it. What I do find puzzling though, having breast fed my daughter, is how mothers are able to carry on breastfeeding their child right into toddler hood. When my daughter was just over nine months she looked up at me when I went to feed her as if to say, ‘what are you doing’ and that was the end of breastfeeding for her. She literally decided she no longer wanted to do it because she realised there was far more going on in the world that she was missing whilst being cocooned up in my arms.