Raising Your Child Naturally vs. Western Child Raising Practices

The Mother as our matrix

From approximately birth to age two, the undeveloped ego of a baby has no sense of itself. She creates a sense of herself by becoming identified with his caregiver, his Mother. The child see's himself, as the mother, and that is the foundation of his ego, from which he'll use to explore and develop a healthy sense of himself and the world. If the mother is loving, nurturing, and always present, the the child forms and image of the world and of himself that he is loving, nurturing, and present. If this doesn't happen, the image of the world becomes that of a hostile and unloving place, and his sense of self will be incomplete, and his life will be innately troubled.

Diet for pregnant mothers, nursing mothers

Diet for woman prior to pregnancy, and diet for babies who are just beginning to eat.

Key Natural Child Raising Principles based on the Continuum Concept

1. constant physical contact with his mother from birth, preferably skin to skin.
2. breastfeeding "on cue" — nursing in response to his own body's signals breastfeeding normally lasts approximately three years
3. sleeping in his parents' bed, in constant physical contact, until he leaves of his own volition (often about two years)
4. being constantly carried in arms or otherwise in contact with someone, usually his mother, and allowed to observe (or nurse, or sleep) while the person carrying him goes about his or her business — until the infant begins creeping, then crawling on his own impulse, usually at six to eight months
5. Treating the child as part of the social system in a respectful and dignified way.

Child enjoy bonding with their father, Father and Son in the Kalahari desert.

Raising a content child through the Continuum Concept

A woman, Jean Liedloff, finds her way to a strange job offer which involved trolling through the jungles of South America. After several expeditions she notices in a strange moment of realization, while in the intense jungle heat, laboring hard physically, that her "primitive" Indian guides are laughing and cracking jokes constantly, have enormous amounts of energy, and never seem bored and restless. Lured by this strange awareness, she goes back to the jungles of the Amazon to live with these primitive people to discover the key to their happiness.

The Continuum Concept is essentially a set of child raising protocols which our bodies are genetically wired to follow. They can be seen every where in the animal kingdom, as well as in almost every primitive culture.

The importance of the In-Arms Phase


Yequana mother and child

More Images of Children in Arms from around the planet.

The tragedy of Western child rearing

For some strange reason, our culture be lives that torturing babies by ignoring them, abandoning them, starving them, and even performing medical procedures on them without anesthetic is normal or even good.

The worst child raising practice that I've seen is children who are strapped into strollers and baby seats who do not get the nurturing which they are genetically wired to receive. Meanwhile the caregivers ignore the babies signals of extreme pain through crying.

Common Practices which traumatize children and babies

1. traumatic separation from his mother at birth due to medical intervention and placement in maternity wards, in physical isolation and circumcision surgery;
2. at home, sleeping alone and isolated, often after "crying himself to sleep";
3. scheduled feeding, with his natural nursing impulses often ignored or "pacified";
4. being excluded and separated from normal adult activities, relegated for hours on end to a nursery, crib or playpen where he is inadequately stimulated by toys and other inanimate objects;
5. caregivers often ignoring, discouraging, belittling or even punishing him when he cries or otherwise signals his needs; or else responding with excessive concern and anxiety, making him the center of attention;
6. sensing (and conforming to) his caregivers' expectations that he is incapable of self-preservation, is innately antisocial, and cannot learn correct behavior without strict controls, threats and a variety of manipulative "parenting techniques" that undermine his exquisitely evolved learning process.

Child raised with his matrix being a stroller and a plastic bottle filled with formula made in a factory.