Mental Health Infants and Babies:
----------------------Love, Positive Parenting and Prevention

Infants need love, right from the womb. Nursing helps to emotionally bond a baby to her mother and vice-versa. Nursing is a good preventive measure for future potential ADHD. Nursing helps a child feel secure and stable in their present and future life.

Good Prenatal Care is a Vital Part of Health and Mental Health Prevention
for Babies

Prenatal care is also a vital aspect of a mother's responsibility. A healthy and balanced diet, avoidance of drugs and alcohol, regular doctor's visits and a mother's decision not to smoke when pregnant can have a positive affect on a baby's future physical and mental health. Poor prenatal care is associated with a greater risk of ADHD symptoms later in life.

Nursing your baby is a positive step in parenting and helps bond the baby and mother. For babies under two years of age, the American Pediatrics Association recommends no television.

Positive Parenting and Discipline

While children should have firm limits and sometimes need discipline, discipline should never be in anger, and always with love. Children should never be verbally humiliated, abused or struck in anger. This can be akin to child abuse. Discipline can include teaching and explaining matters to a child, it doesn't always mean punishment. The purpose of discipline isn't necessarily to punish but to adjust a child's way to one that is more appropriate. Children need to know the whys of matters, not just the whats.

For many little girls, one not rough spanking in a lifetime might be all that is ever necessary and for many little girls a stern look is enough to make them cry, whereas a rough a tumble boy might need firmer discipline.

Children under the age of two should not watch any television, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics Association. It is more than the baby's brain can handle. While there are occasional very gentle programs for children, commercials are usually not, but are designed to capture attention, be memorable and move to action, commercial television as a whole is not a good idea for infants.

See the American Academy of Pediatrics comments on children, infants and media at:
American Academy of Pediatrics comments on children, infants and media.

See also: AAP Org for clinical study concerning television and subsequent attentional problems in children. Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH; Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD; David L. DiGiuseppe, MSc; and Carolyn A. McCarty, PhD

The Effects of Movies - Violence and Sex - on Infants

Movies for young children sometimes can contain cartoon or other violence. Cartoon violence is as real as other forms of violence and can affect a child's personality. Never should a preteenager view scenes of graphic violence in movies, nor should a child be exposed to any significant sex on television, movies or otherwise. Some sensitive children can be profoundly affected by average cartoon violence. Using movies as a baby sitter, as a way to keep children quite, is self-defeating, it can be like a drug for kids, it keeps them quiet for the moment, but afterwards the problem comes back in more earnest.

Some films for children are intense, and some children's movies have deep messages of a spiritual nature. Certain movies and TV programs such as Sponge Bob, have not only (humorous) cartoon violence, like Bugs Bunny, except on a larger scale, more like a juiced up Roadrunner, but also have sexual innuendo and humorous homosexual references. Children and teens pick up on this and talk about it in school. (One Freshman High School class was quite insistent that Sponge Bob and Patrick were gay, based on their summations of certain programs and the movie. A fifth-grade class had questions about the sexual orientation of the theme characters after the movie).

While the purpose of this note on Sponge Bob isn't too judge anyone's sexuality, the point is, that for children and young people, it stays on their minds, they think about it, mull it over, digest it and interpret it. Most kids and many young teens aren't ready to handle the sexuality that is introduced to them through TV, cartoons, movies and other sources, and it stays on their minds during the school day, even if they might not have the courage to talk to their parents about it.

It is better that a child's introduction to sex be in a dignified manner, preferably from the parents, who can gradually talk to them about these things in a way that is accurate and honorable.

Conclusion on Mental Health Infants and Babies - Related Pages

Children need a parent's love, time and attention, as well as their approval. This can help a child from any socio-economic background, to feel secure and develop well emotionally, psychologically as well as spiritually. Mental Health Infants and Babies: Prevention, Love and Positive Parenting

Pages Related to Raising Babies and Infants - Mental Health, Prevention

24 Positive Steps for Effective Parenting -Children's Mental Health

Autism in Children

Walt Disney Biography

Children & Movies

Objective To test the hypothesis that audible television is associated with decreased parent and child interactions.

One clinical study was designed to determine the impact of television on infant's language ability. While you might think that watching television would increase a child's ability to understand and speak audible language, the study actually found that for every additional hour that a child was exposed to television, there was a decrease in 770 words (7%) that the child heard from an adult during a recorded session, as well as a reduction in the number and length of sounds and spoken words by the child with the adult.

Audible Television and Decreased Adult Words, Infant Vocalizations, and Conversational Turns - A Population-Based Study, Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH; Jill Gilkerson, PhD; Jeffrey A. Richards, MA; Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD; Michelle M. Garrison, PhD; Dongxin Xu, PhD; Sharmistha Gray, PhD; Umit Yapanel, PhD. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(6):554-558.