The Baby Ecology approach in a nutshell (a short video)

by Anya Dunham, PhD

When I was a new a mom 15 years ago, I found myself in a sea of conflicting opinions. Many came with a sense of pressure: "Do this or your baby won't thrive." And many came with at least some scientific evidence seemingly backing them up, evidence that may or may not have been cherry-picked.

This was overwhelming and unhelpful.

So I began to think about raising babies from the perspective of my research field, ecology. Despite technological progress, baby ecology — what our babies need from the physical spaces they live in, the care they receive, and their interactions with people in their life — has remained largely constant and universal.

I used my research training to critically analyze studies on baby sleep, feeding, care, and play through this lens to answer the following questions:

• What does science tell us about the needs of human babies?
• What elements in babies' environments — their physical spaces and social and emotional experiences — help meet these needs? What are the good options and how wide is "the range of good"?

Knowing this range of good options, we can create the nurturing environment that works best for each specific, unique baby & family. I describe it in my book, Baby Ecology. Take a look at the Table of Contents or read a sample to see if it's the right fit for you.

Using hundreds of scientific studies, Baby Ecology connects the dots to help you create the best environment for sleep, feeding, care, and play for your baby.

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Hello! I'm Anya Dunham, a scientist with a PhD in Biology, an award-winning author, and a mom to three kids. Here and in my book, Baby Ecology, I analyze infant development research to find the optimal nurturing environment — the (usually wide) range of good options — to help you choose what works best for your baby and your family. Welcome!

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