Evolutionary Parenting Podcast

In this interview with Lyndsey Hookway of Feed Sleep Bond and Holistic Sleep Coaching, we don't actually talk about sleep! Instead I got to ask Lyndsey about her research in the barriers and struggles facing families who are breastfeeding children with various medical conditions, including acute illness, chronic illness, life-threatening illness, and congenital problems. It is heartbreaking at times to hear what families face and the lack of support, but Lyndsey shares information for anyone going through this and has a road map for where we all need to be going to support these families.

In this interview, I talk to the founder of the Gentle Mama, Halyley Bukhamsin. She is a UK ex-pat living in Dubai and trying to help families move towards a more gentle response to their child's sleep. Most interesting to me is the cultural variety in Dubai and the unique circumstances that poses for someone working across so many cultures. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did and I thank Hayley for coming on, especially as she was at the tail end of fighting Covid!

This episode I interview Carly Grubb, the amazing founder of the Beyond Sleep Training Project and the charity Little Sparklers, based in Australia. We talk about all we can relating to her work, sleep training, orchid kids, and the struggles facing so many families today!

When do our children's needs morph into wants? How are we supposed to be responsive without "giving in"? These are some of the questions that I talk about with a mother looking for answers about how to be a loving, responsive, and sensitive parent without harming her child's budding independence.

In this inaugural episode, Pinky McKay and I chat about an interesting question: Does breastfeeding on demand at night lead to the expectation of immediate sexual gratification in adulthood? This was a question given to me by a reader who was told this would be the case by a close friend. Sadly, too many people still link breastfeeding or nursing with sex and think that allowing a child to feed on demand leads to entitlement. Nothing could be further from the truth and Pinky and I discuss these misconceptions. If you want to read up some more on topics related to this, you can read the following pieces by Pinky or myself: Does your breastfed baby really need night feeds? http://www.pinkymckay.com/breastfeeding-does-your-baby-really-need-night-feeds/ Does co-sleeping mean a better sex life? http://www.pinkymckay.com/co-sleeping-does-it-mean-a-better-sex-life/ What is the link between breastfeeding on demand and self-regulation? http://evolutionaryparenting.com/the-role-of-breastfeeding-in-self-regulation/ Can things like nursing at night, co-sleeping, and so on harm our children? http://evolutionaryparenting.com/what-children-dont-need/