API Recommended Reads
There are times when parents can't make it to a meeting or don't have a local API support group. Computer time with young children can be fleeting. But yet, parents still need to keep their AP tools sharpened and at the ready. The best way to do this is through constantly educating yourselves.
Please note that any time one of the following resources refers to the mother, we intend that to refer to anyone who has sole custody or care of a child. It is not intended to be discriminatory toward fathers or other primary caregivers.
Information on Attachment
- Giving Our Children Presence Position Paper (PDF) from AP Month 2008
- Are you an "Attachment Parent"? by Jennifer Scoby
- The Chemistry of Attachment by Linda F. Palmer, DC
- Developing emotional attachments in adopted children by Lysa Parker
- Bonding with Your Newborn by William Sears, MD
- The Attachment Cycle by Barbara Nicholson
- AP is a Frame of Mind by Diana West (external site)
- The Healing Gap by Scott Noelle (external site)
- What is Attachment Parenting? by Jan Hunt (external site)
- Some call it alternative parenting; they call it traditional by Sean Sands from The Gazette (external site)
- Parenting Science provides information on child-rearing from the perspectives of anthropology, brain science, developmental psychology, and evolution (external site)
Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting
Feed with Love and Respect
- A New Look at the Safety of Breastfeeding During Pregnancy by Hilary Dervin Flower, MA
Use Nurturing Touch
- Babywearing: The Benefits of Carrying Your Baby in a Sling by Marie Spadaro (PDF file of an article from Children's Essentials Magazine)
- Discovery Health Channel's Deliver Me: Baby Massage spotlights the benefits of infant massage in addition to providing instruction on how to massage an infant.
- Hold Me Close - Research Summary of the Importance of Holding and Babywearing by Dr. Maria Blois (PDF file, external site)
Ensure Safe Sleep, Physically and Emotionally
- API's Infant Sleep Safety Guidelines
- UNICEF & FSID leaflet and joint statement on mother-infant bedsharing (external site)
- Dr. James McKenna's Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory Resources (external site)
- Ten Reasons to Sleep Next to Your Child at Night by Jan Hunt (external site)
- Sleeping Safely with your Baby from AskDrSears.com (external site)
- Nighttime fears in children by Gwen Dewar, PhD.
Provide Consistent and Loving Care
- Infants and Joint Custody excerpt from The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25 Year Landmark Study
- How Older Children Cope with Joint Custody excerpt from The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25 Year Landmark Study
- Children of Divorce by Isabelle Fox
- Bottlefeeding: an attachment parenting perspective from The Baby Book
- The Lesson of Okinawa by Lysa Parker
- Attachment Parenting in a Detached World by Jennifer Coburn
Practice Positive Discipline
- Managing Anger: What to do When You Want to Have A Tantrum by API Staff & Tricia Jalbert, API News- Spring 2000
- Research: New Studies Link Long Childcare Hours to Behavior Problems by Amy Silver
- The Case Against Time Out by Peter Haiman (external site)
- Teaching Through Love Instead of Fear by Pam Leo (external site)
- Child Abuse and Mistreatment (external site)
Strive for Balance in Personal and Family Life
- Positive Change Starts With Positive Steps by Jennifer Scoby
- Play in the Everyday! by Carrie Kerr
- Parents Need Boundaries, Too by Carrie Kerr
- Simplify Your Morning Routine by Sharon Chinn-Heritch
- Making Cooperative Parenting Work - when mom and dad disagree by Jennifer Scoby
- A Delicate Balance by Isabelle Fox, Ph.D., API News- Late Summer 2000
- A Little Self-Care Goes A Long Way by Karen Walant, Ph.D., API News- Late Summer 2000
Your Child's Education
- "Shape a child, shape the future" by the National Institute on Media and the Family (video)
- Your Child's School Experience by Isabelle Fox
Separation, Divorce, and Custody Issues
- Protecting a child's emotional development when parents divorce by Dr. Peter Haiman
- Article: Babies' Attachment to Parents Affected by Overnights
- OVERNIGHTS: The Difference Between Night and Day
- Infants and Joint Custody excerpt from The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25 Year Landmark Study
- How Older Children Cope with Joint Custody excerpt from The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25 Year Landmark Study
- Children of Divorce: Divorce and Attachment by Isabelle Fox, Ph.D.
- The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce
by Judith Wallerstein
- What About the Kids?
- Creating Effective Parenting Plans
- I don't want to choose: A school-based program for middle school children of divorce (PDF)
Attachment Parenting and the Law
- Breastfeeding and the Law A collection of articles written by Elizabeth Baldwin and others
- A Letter to the Court "Overnights and other custody/visitation arrangments with divorced or separated parents of infants and toddlers" by Isabelle Fox, Ph.D.
- When Ties to a Parent Are Cut by the Other NY Times online article written by Dr. Amy J.L. Baker
Professional Resources
Additional professional resources are available on the Information for Professionals page.
