As a child I was a bed wetter, or at least I thought I was. Years after we were grown, my older brother, with whom I shared a bed as a child, made a confession. Actually he wet the bed, but pushed me over on the wet spot before I woke up. We can laugh about it now, but at the time it certainly wasn’t funny for me.

After one of my lectures last autumn a parent came up and said that she wanted to ask a question but was a bit embarrassed to ask in front of the whole audience. She told me that she had gone shopping with her eight-year-old son just before Halloween. As usual at such times, almost every aisle had bins of candy. Just in case you missed them, they were all installed near to the cash register.

When your three-year-old wakes you up in the middle of the night with a cry like “Mommy, mommy, there’s a bear in my room!” what do you do? First of all, cries like this are only heard after the child acquires what Piaget called the “symbolic function” the ability to create symbols. This usually appears after the second year when the child is well into language.

For mothers who breast feed, the transition to other means of nourishment raises several issues. Perhaps the most salient one is when to begin weaning. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that weaning should begin once the infant is about six months old. The Academy also suggests that the weaning process should be gradual alternating between solids and liquids and breast milk until the baby is about one year. By that time the infant is eating more solid foods and may simply lose interest in nursing.

Breastfeeding is never simple and straightforward, as it might seem. Indeed, Edith Jackson, a pediatrician at Yale described (in the 1950’s) five different nursing styles. Knowing the style a baby has, helps you know how to respond appropriately:

Barracuda