Discuss some of the controversies involved in infant routines (e.g., scheduled vs. demand feeding, handling sleep problems, breast vs. bottle feeding), and state your opinions on which technique is superior. Locate research that supports your opinion.
Scheduled feedings occur when the parent chooses a feeding interval based on their baby’s weight, age, and time of day or night (Iacovou, & Sevilla, 2013). Understanding the newborn’s habits and sleep patterns enables the mother to design a feeding plan. The mother makes fixed points to ensure that the baby gets enough milk for their growth and development. On the other hand, on-demand feeding means feeding infants whenever hungry (Iacovou, & Sevilla, 2013). Such indications include when the baby licks their lips, cries, sticks out tongue or roots around. Benefits include increase of milk supply making it enough for the baby’s growth and regulation of supply based on the child’s demands. The on-demand method is superior to the scheduled feeding method because it provides a full mother’s milk supply of nutrition while offering unrestricted nurture, comfort, and warmth. Scheduled feeding limits full milk supply while reducing time for bonding between mother and child.
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Using the research on temperaments, explain how a personality trait like shyness could be influenced by both genetic and environmental influences.
Shyness personality traits include feeling apprehended, awkward, or discomfort in social settings ( Smith, Rhee, Corley, Friedman, Hewitt, & Robinson, 2012). Infants have a higher probability of showcasing shyness personality if they have a first degree relative that portrays shyness. Parental psychosocial education and infant observational learning affect their behavioral genetic heritability as a latent phenotype that triggers social avoidance and fear ( Smith et al., 2012). Also, during prenatal development, children exposed to longer daylengths during gestation report lower levels of shyness than those exposed to shorter lengths of daytime during gestation. Children that also produce excess cortisol suppress the infant’s immune system making them susceptible to disease and illness (Smith et al., 2012). Infants develop adaptive skills and undergo socialization which are environmental influences that shape their behavior when exposed to new situations or in unfamiliar context. Growing with hypercritical and overprotective primary caregivers positively affects the development of anxious and fearful individuals.
References
Iacovou, M., & Sevilla, A. (2013). Infant feeding: the effects of scheduled vs. on-demand feeding on mothers’ wellbeing and children’s cognitive development. European Journal of Public Health, 23(1), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks012
Smith, A., Rhee, S., Corley, R., Friedman, N., Hewitt, J., & Robinson, J. (2012). The magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on parental and observational measures of behavioral inhibition and shyness in toddlerhood. Behavior Genetics , 42(5), 764–777. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-012-9551-0
