Should parents sleep with their babies?

Whether they know it or not, Arkansans who sleep with their babies, breastfeed them, carry them around on their bodies and attend to their cries are practicing “attachment parenting.”

Coined by pediatrician Dr. William Sears, the term attachment parenting includes seven principles: birth bonding, breastfeeding, baby-wearing, bedding close to baby (called “co-sleeping”), belief in baby’s cries, beware of baby trainers and balance between parents’ needs and those of baby.

For some families these things feel natural. But critics of attachment parenting argue that it creates clingy, tyrannical children and that it puts unfair demands on parents.

Writer Kimberly Dishongh gets perspective from people on both sides in Wednesday’s Family section.

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