Evolutionary Parenting Podcast

Too often we look at parenting practices and our judgment of them in absolute terms. I know I myself have been guilty of this. Sometimes it's warranted, but sometimes the judgments and the repercussions become a way that we disenfranchise and marginalize already marginalized groups in our society. When we think about the experiences of families facing involvement from government systems - many of...

Welcome back to Week 2 with Dr. James McKenna as we continue our conversation into SIDS, colic, breathing, and how our closeness to our babies can protect them. Please see below for the summary from Part 1: I want to mention some things that parents of young babies have to think about. They often think about: * Where their baby sleeps * Why their baby cries (or cries so much) * Worry about SIDS *...

I want to mention some things that parents of young babies have to think about. They often think about: * Where their baby sleeps * Why their baby cries (or cries so much) * Worry about SIDS * How much their baby sleeps * Their baby's brain development * How to feed their baby (and how to get support for it) * Wondering when our babies will speak Of course there is so much more, but I mention thes...

We all want our kids to be able to regulate themselves, don't we? It feels like one of the main goals of parenting is how we are able to help get our kids to the stage where they can handle big emotions, frustrations, and the minor struggles on their own. Like most things that are developmental in nature, parents can play a key role in how this happens. This week we explore the issue of how parent...

Babywearing is still somewhat fringe in our society, despite being exactly how babies have been kept close to parents for most of human history. I mean, it's not like we had strollers back in the stone age. When people utilize babywearing today, most do so for convenience. After all, if you've tried navigating strollers on public transit, you know the nightmare. But is there more to it? Attachment...

When you think back to your birth, do you recall it fondly? The way they say you're supposed to feel about this momentous moment? Or do you try to block it out? Cry about it? Feel like it was an event you don't even want to remember? For too many families, birth isn't a peaceful event or even a happy one, but something that brings longer lasting traumas for all. Though many tend to think that if b...

When we get pregnant and are expecting our first child, most people don't see this as a time to worry that their mental health is going to go downhill. We're supposed to be happy or even thrilled about this new stage in our lives. But for many families, pregnancy is the beginning of what can be some serious mental health struggles. Perinatal depression, anxiety, and more are all common occurrences...

If you've listened here before you will know that the research doesn't support the idea that extinction sleep training methods, like crying it out or controlled crying, actually improve our infant's sleep (or children's for that matter). Despite parents reporting improvements, when we look at objective measures of sleep, the sleep of children pre- and post-sleep training is actually no different....

When we think about education, most of us think about our experience with what we might call modern-traditional schooling: classes by grade, a teacher at the front, testing, memorization, getting to know a new teacher each year, and maybe some more good like good friendships or more bad, like bullying. But what if school doesn't have to look like this? What alternative paradigms are out there? Thi...

"It's just the way it is!" "Progress is always good" These are the sentiments that many people feel about the way our society and culture is structured. Because it's how we've grown up and what we've experienced, we believe this is the way it is. We view change as progress and think that anything different must be less than. But what if this isn't the type of society or life that enabled us humans...

When you thought about nursing, did you think about how long it would go? Did you think, "I will absolutely be done by one because that's old enough"? Then find yourself with a 2-year-old attached to the boob and worry that they're too old? Or perhaps you were okay with that from the start, but still face comments, questions, and accusations from others about this? Welcome to nursing beyond infanc...

From the moment a family is expecting their first child, decisions are made about how that relationship is going to work, decisions that don't always match reality. The addition of a new person to the family - and a rather helpless one at that - changes everything. Here we have a baby who needs and expects certain things. Food. Warmth. Care. We also have parents who often live in cultures that tel...

"You must breastfeed!" says the medical professional. "Don't you dare sleep with your baby!" says the same medical professional. The tension between how we feed our babies and how we sleep with them is a real problem for many new families. As primates, we are expected to stay close to our young, and that includes nighttime, and this has profound implications for our feeding journey. As we discusse...

Although not every parent chooses to, many report wanting to breastfeed or chestfeed their child. Our Western society likes to promote this with slogans and ideas that "breast is best", but most of that isn't backed up with the type of support that parents need to make this a reality. From inadequate leave to advice that counters the promotion of breastfeeding to a lack of instrumental and social...

When we first become parents there are tons of books and advice for us to follow in the baby years and even the toddler years. As our kids age, however, it seems that all the parenting experts start to fade away. They don't dare touch the older children until perhaps the teenage years. Yet our tweens - that delicate age around 8 to 13 - is crucial to how we will face the teenage years with our chi...

Welcome back to part two of my talk with Brian Earp. If you haven't listened yet to last week's episode, I strongly suggest you do because some of what we talk about this week directly follows that conversation. Moving on from the discussion of health risks versus benefits of male infant circumcision, this week we turn towards the social elephant in the room, namely the gendered debate on circumci...

In North America - the United States in particular - males are regularly circumcised at birth. Over the years, various arguments have been made leading up to a shift in the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that the benefits of male infant circumcision outweigh the risks. In this episode - the first of two - I had the chance to talk to Brian Earp, an outspoken critic of the arguments often...

This is a special episode of the podcast because it's focused on something highly relevant to us today. At this moment, we're faced with a global pandemic that we are trying to overcome. Over the past few months, vaccinations have become a crucial step in this process, but there are still questions and concerns that people have, especially around those who are breastfeeding or chestfeeding. I had...

A common view today is that when we are born, we are somehow born on even footing when it comes to the effects of how we are raised and what this means for us developmentally. We believe this despite the emergence of epigenetic theories that tell us otherwise, but the problem becomes how to actually study this given the myriad variables that are at play. This week I had the pleasure of talking to...

We're all told that we need to be good parents, but what does this mean? Is it universal for all people of all walks of life? In this episode, I talk with my ongoing guest Dr. Levita D'Souza about a paper that piqued our interest looking at the relationship of parenting styles with emotion regulation in a predominantly lower-SES and African American sample. Through understanding the effects of par...

When we explore our human evolutionary histories as they've been told so far, the central theme is often on the male experience. The hunter. The conqueror. How did male fertility traits impact relationships? And yet, what is most central to human survival? Procreation and raising the next generation which inherently should involve mothers and children. It is under this lens that Drs. Lesley Newson...

Despite a lot of talk about breastfeeding in our culture, very little discussion happens about the various ways that lactation and provision of breast milk is shared amongst nursing parents. We often think about lactation between one mother and one child and yet that is not how it presents for all families or for all children. From allomaternal nursing to breast milk banks, the world of cooperativ...

This week we delve into the world of breastfeeding advocacy with none other than the Badass Breastfeeder herself, Abby Theuring. It feels like no matter where you turn today, breastfeeding has become politicized beyond belief, and the voice of those whom breastfeeding directly impacts is left out. Whether it's women sharing stories of feeling shamed or bullied into breastfeeding or the polar oppos...

Most people conceptualize dyslexia as an intellectual disorder, but that simply isn't the case. Although dyslexia is a struggle with reading, reading isn't all there is to our intelligence, just one component of our neurological profile. And as with most things in the brain, if one area is less reactive, chances are other areas are even more reactive. This week, we explore research into the emotio...

For years we have assumed that babies were incapable of complex empathy. We thought they could react to others' distress through emotion contagion but that was it. It turns out, we were wrong. This week we explore the empathic life of infants through the amazing work of Dr. Maayan Davidov who has been showing the world exactly how capable of empathy infants are. Join us as we talk about these disc...