parenting styles

[nikkij33950]

i was just curious about everyones parenting style. i breastfed my son and we cosleep in the family bed 90% of the time and we also use cloth diapers. to evryone who thinks cloth diapers are gross i thought they would be but they really aren't bad and it saves me a ton of money. :)

[Loriko]

I don't have any kids, but I remeber when my brothers and I were little we would always sleep in our parents' bed. My mom never breastfed any of us.

[gwensmom]

I breastfed for about 5 months. Gwen lost interest and I was glad because she was starting to get teeth! I had planned to continue for one year.

We did co-sleeping but not because we chose it. Gwen had seizures and could not be left alone. We put her on a pillow between our heads. We finally had to hire help to stay with her at night when she was 8 months old because I could not go any longer without sleep. I will say that it was kind of nice at times to wake up and see a sweet baby face next to mine. :wub:

We tried cloth diapers but our diaper service disappeared after only a few weeks. I was glad because I hated cloth diapers. I know they are better for the environment but Gwen was sick and I couldn't manage it.

[atomic_cocktail]

I tried to breastfeed but she would never latch on... I stayed at the hospital longer trying to work with a lactaion consultant and everything..

We sleep togethor most of the time... her crib is in the small hallway room off of ours so if she is in her crib it is very close.

As fas as cloth diapers... there is no diaper service and I do not have the time. I would like to be one of those people that could do this but I just can't.

I practice attachment parenting and my daughter comes to work with me everyday... well sundays she stays home with my husband but she has never been in daycare and when we go to movies she stays with her great grandma up the road.

-breanna

[AlienSpy]

Well, I don't have children yet so I won't vote. But I want to breastfeed and maybe try to use cloth diapers. As for co-sleeping, I haven't thought about that yet. My mom did breastfeed me and she always used cloth diapers.

Julie

[Penster]

I used cloth diapers on my son when we were home, disposable ones when we went out. We didn't have a diaper service (not that I would use it anyway), so I was the one responsible for cleaning them.

I didn't breastfeed because I was returning to work in 3 months, and I wasn't interested in doing it anyway, so that was never an issue.

He slept in a small bassinet in my bedroom when I first brought him home from the hospital and later I moved him into his own crib/room when he outgrew that. When he got big enough to climb out of his crib, he would crawl in bed with us...usually on his father's side because I would send him back to his own bed if I was awake :o

He's 21 now...almost the age I was when I had him...no wonder I feel old :blink:

Penny

[reddirtrose]

I did all of the above. She is now 33 and he is 29 :o
#1 child coslept about 2 1/2 years - I really got tired of it because we were in a double bed and I got "kicked and wiggled" a lot. I breastfed her almost that long. only used disposable diapers on roadtrips. never had a dryer with all those diapers - clothesline and sun dry all the way B)
#2 child nursed and coslept about a year as I remember.
it was wonderful :D

[hainlam]

I breastfed my little one for a year and 2 months, he weaned himself.

Didn't use cloth diapers, I tried it, and couldn't keep up on the laundry (there wasn't a diaper service in our area-- we lived out on a farm in the middle of nowhere)

Co-sleeper, most definetly. Still have a family bed, even though he is six. Yes, six.. I know a lot of people think that is strange.. think what you will.

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

I have no kids, so I couldn't vote, but I would like for my best friend to see this. She feels all alone in the world because she still breastfeeds Lily, who is 10 months old, and they co-sleep, and they use cloth diapers. She said that the other parents look at her like she's an alien.

[nymphette]

i breastfed julian until he was a little over 6 months old... it was HIS decision to stop, i was willing to keep it up until he was 18 months or so, but once he cut teeth, he had no interest... :( i also used cloth diapers with him because it saved money and we had a washing machine.. i wouldn't have done it we were in an apartment, or didn't have a washer... but like reddirtrose, they are fine on a line to dry!!! julian didn't sleep in a crib until he was about 10 months old... i loved having him right beside me, and it was hard to give him up to his own personal space, he was such a close part of me!!!

harrison has been a whold different ball of wax from the start.. ihad to give up the breastfeeding becuase we can't really monitor the protein level in breast milk enough to use it with his 'formulas' (he is on an essential amino acid medical food as well as a protein free high calorie medical food...) i did find out after i let my milk dry up that it *IS* possible, and i had some pills to bring my milk back... but at that point i decided that having a sick baby at home being fed by gastrostomy tube every four hours was more than enough work, never mind pumping breast milk every three hours!!! (as he wouldn't be able to nurse anyhow, it would have to be carefully measured...) i went through a deep depression about having to give that up with him, it really was the last 'mom' thing i had- evrything else i did could be done (and a lot was done because i couldnt' be at the hospital 24 hours a say, not matter how much i wanted to be...) by a nurse... breastfeeding was such an importan thing for me as a mom... anyhow, cloth diapers for harrison- no way!!! we have to use the diapers with the stay dry type of inside that takes wetness away from the skin.. with his sodium phenyl butyrate, all his excretions are so acidic it is like vinegar when he pees!!! so we have to buy disposables, as well as ihle's paste for 'diaper cream'... his botton used to be so bad that it was constantly open and bleeding!!! poor baby boy!!! it is so much better now, we still aren't sure why it cleared up all of a sudden!!! as for cosleeping with harrison, it really isnt' an option for me... he has to be hooked up to his feeding pump from about 11 pm until 930 am, so that involves a fair amount of positioning that i can't give him if he's snuggling with me... :( he needs to be elevated slightly, as well as propped up on his side (in case he throws up, so he doesnt' aspirate) and the amount of receiving blankets we go through because of him throwing up, well... let's say it's a good thing i still ahve that washing machine, AND a dryer!!!!

but he's just as special as his brother, even if i have had to do everything differently, from the start... though i would love to, just one night, hold him in my arms and sleep with him...

robyn

[mokistar]

breastfed both my kiddos for 18 months (would have done longer with #2 but he bites) Co slept with #1 for 4 years!!! ugh. Enjoyed it but geez! LOL Number 2 is 20 months now and still in bed with us. I want to cloth diaper. #2 has worn some but I get so frustrated. I do daycare from home so I think I just get sick of changing diapers...wish I would have know about elmination communication.
By the way...no epideral for birth. (got to read Birthing From Within...great for prego natural artists)

[medeous]

Originally posted by hainlam@Sep 30 2003, 10:23 AM
Co-sleeper, most definetly. Still have a family bed, even though he is six. Yes, six.. I know a lot of people think that is strange.. think what you will.
my daughter and i still end up co-sleeping most of the time and she's 10 years old...a few people think it's weird, but mostly they don't have kids. i breastfed her, but used disposable diapers.

[cyph0r]

didn't vote cos i've no kids. but my mom breastfed me for a month or two and stopped when she had to go back to work and weaned me off milk at age 2. Did no co-sleep unless i was sick or had nightmares. Cloth diapers at home and disposable ones outside.
I guess it was pretty much the same for my sister (5yrs younger than me) except she breastfed longer cos she worked from home by then. my sister however still sucked on her pacifier at age 7!! i remember how i used to tease her endlessly about it and how my mother had a hard time getting her to stop.

[mysundown15]

My parents didn't do any of those. The co-sleeping thing didn't happen until I was older, like 5 maybe. They wouldn't let me when I was younger because my dad worked in a hospital and he saw quite a few SIDS deaths, and sleeping in the same bed as a baby supposedly increases the risk. Sometimes one of them would join me in my room - sleeping on the floor or in a chair.

The diaper thing... only disposable were used. I guess cloth ones were too old-fashioned, or they just didn't have the time to clean them.

I was never breastfed. I gotta give my mom credit, she tried to - but her breasts were extremely sensitive and the pain was horrible to her.

On a really gross note, my mom works in a doctors office and sees quite a few freaky patients. One day she was going into the one examining room to drop off the x-ray's she just developed, and there's a mother topless on the chair breastfeeding her son that was around 10-12. My mom was like "uh, uh, I gotta go" and ran out of the room. Now that's what I call a dysfunctional family. :blink: To me, that's incest. Once someone gets to that age, it becomes something sexual to either the mother or the child. Blech. A "normal" mother would have stopped long before -- or if the son was still insisting, give him a pacifier or some sort of a replacement. Yuckers!

[medeous]

Originally posted by mysundown15@Oct 27 2003, 07:58 AM
and there's a mother topless on the chair breastfeeding her son that was around 10-12.
i gotta agree...that's just wrong. :blink:

[sistasmell]

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I almost fainted. Bleah bleah bleah!