Bathing

Self-Identification Process (04:19)
Soon after birth, parents bathe their babies in warm water as a gentle reminder of the womb experience. In subdued lighting and with the gentle caresses of their parents, babies begin their self-identification process.

Swimming Babies (03:28)
In liquid environments, babies re-experience the joy of kicking in a weightless world. In swimming pools, babies can instinctively propel themselves through water.

Swaddling Clothes (03:51)
In earlier times, the value of water for infant cleanliness was not understood. Cleanliness was associated with dryness, and most people perceived babies as fragile and in constant threat of death. Swaddling clothes restricted nearly all of a baby's movements.

Baby Bath Time (03:53)
Once bacteria are discovered, a well-scrubbed child is a healthy child. Bath time is a time for parent and child to be together, to share language, to get clean, to play, and to develop body awareness.

Respect for Childhood Sexuality (06:27)
While washing, children discover their bodies, including their genitals. Freud's definition of sexuality in children is broad and includes all bodily pleasures. Adults must respect children's body discoveries as well as their genitalia.

Toilet Training and Anal Phase (04:46)
A caregiver reads a book to small children that teaches them about using the potty chair. A physician recommends that parents do not force potty training on children. During the anal phase of child development, children learn about cleaning themselves, and giving and withholding their feces.

Dignity of Children (03:57)
Adults must respect a child's modesty and sense of intimacy. It is important not to be intrusive on their toilet activities, and not to force a child to have its diaper changed if the child doesn't want it. Children learn to distinguish themselves apart from their feces.

Language and Infants (03:59)
Intensive care personnel regularly touch and talk to babies. Every baby, no matter how small, must hear language, especially their parents' voices, and the conversations around them should be about the babies.

Repressive Childrearing Practices (02:39)
As a result of the authoritarian stance of 19th-century physicians who tell mothers when to feed, bathe, and toilet train their babies, mothers come to implicitly trust the word of their doctors. Consequently, children are raised in very repressive, "sadomasochistic" environments.

Day Care History (05:06)
Childcare institutions practice the repressive techniques taught by doctors. Daycare centers are sad, uninviting, and unimaginative, resembling hospitals. Today, the success of day care centers often works against parent/child relationships, as parents are eager to hand their children over to others.

Children's Pain and Death (06:08)
It was thought that babies and young children did not feel pain, a myth that is contradicted by modern medicine. A doctor explains a surgical procedure to a very small child. Worldwide, over 12 million children under age 5 die each year, mostly from easily preventable diseases.

Childrearing Challenges (02:21)
Today, too much attention is put on children in what some experts believe is child worship. Giving children too much power and too many things prevents children from blossoming and opening up to other, and in some cases, it creates detestable human beings.