Parenting With Leidoff's Continuum Concept
Babies' Needs for Babywearing and Co-Sleeping are Based on Evolution
Jun 30, 2009
Parents who are interested in Attachment Parenting principles may have heard about The Continuum Concept [Da Capo Press, 1986. ISBN-10: 0201050714]. The Continuum Concept is essentially a record of Jean Leidoff's experiences living with tribal people in South America and the conclusions she arrived at regarding the most evolutionarily correct parenting practices for infants and young children.
What is the Continuum Concept?
Written in 1975 by Jean Leidoff, The Continuum Concept is a book written about the natural development of infants and children in the Yequana tribe of South America. While living with the Yequana, Leidoff noticed how calm, obedient and happy the children were, and how balanced and integrated the rest of the tribe was. Leidoff observed the parenting practices of the Yequana, such as constantly carrying infants, breastfeeding on demand and sleeping with their babies and concluded that the Yequana society is closer to the natural continuum of human experience that has evolved over the entire history of humans.
The Continuum Concept and Attachment Parenting
The tenets contained in The Continuum Concept are similar to the central ideas of Attachment Parenting, as written about by Dr. William Sears and his wife, Martha Sears, R.N. Both parenting practices encourage attachment and closeness between mother and infant by babywearing during the day, co-sleeping at night and breastfeeding on demand. Both approaches believe that by meeting the infant's needs for constant closeness, movement and nurturing, these needs will be fulfilled and the child is then free to move on to meet other needs for independent exploration.
Meeting Evolutionary Expectations Makes Babies Happy
Leidoff believes that an infant expects to be carried closely and provided with stimulation from being part of a busy and involved life, because this experience would have been the same as that of infants throughout human history, up to very recent years. When these expectations are not met, the baby experiences profound despair and suffering. By parenting based on the continuum concept, Leidoff claims that parents reduce their child's suffering and provide him with a solid base to develop from.
Limitations of the Continuum Concept
Leidoff discusses many anti-social behaviors that she believes have their root cause in a lack of closeness and continuum parenting during infancy. She believes that a baby deprived of closeness and movement will grow up into an adult who is constantly living with a feeling of lacking something, which causes him to seek out relationships and activities that approximate the feelings of passivity and contentment enjoyed by a baby being carried constantly by his mother, such as heroin addiction, unhealthy marriages or roller coaster rides.
The Continuum Concept in the Modern World
Sometimes Leidoff seems to be stretching her observations to the limit by drawing conclusions such as these. Leidoff herself also recognizes that modern "civilized" society is structured in a way that makes living entirely according to continuum principles quite difficult, if not impossible. However, even if children cannot be left to wander city streets alone or work alongside their mother or father, infants can at least be given the in-arms time they need by their mother or primary caregiver.
Whether a parent decides to adopt continuum parenting practices fully, partially or not at all, The Continuum Concept contains interesting ideas about how babies' needs developed through human history, and how different current parenting practices are from what would be safe and practical for tribal peoples. Leidoff is passionate and emotional in her convictions about the continuum concept, and truly hopes to improve the world by making babies' lives happier and more content.
